The Universal Collective

In my opinion, collective intelligence has been around since the beginning of time.  Forums, group meetings, panels, discussion groups, etc. define collaborative, collective intelligence.  However, within the digital realm this type of collaboration is perpetual, dynamic, and takes place at a much faster pace on a much larger scale.  I agree with Tom Atlee’s position in his blog entitled “Let Us Frame Collective Intelligence as Big as it Is”, that collective intelligence in the digital world should be employed to aid in the progressive development of society as a whole, not just schools, government, or in the individual.  Common sense tells us we are in fact greater than the sum of our parts.  In my PLE I employ collaborative learning to solve problems I encounter with my personal computer, such as the failing of a RAID – Level 0 array I encountered on Saturday.  I sifted through countless discussion threads on the topic looking for examples that were identical to the parameters surrounding my drive failure.  Subsequently, I logged in to instant messenger and started conversing with two of my more technically proficient friends about possible solutions to the problem.  They each had different ideas about why the drives failed, and differed on the solution, however, I was able to evaluate the relative application of their opinions based on the larger body of knowledge I had already parsed in the discussion threads.  The collective intelligence of the contributors to the discussion threads, and the occasional corrections offered by the moderators were sufficient to allow to eliminate methods that were either a) destructive to the data on the device b) not truly applicable to my particular case.  My friends actually did not believe it would be possible to completely recover the data given the type of drive failure, however, there were experts online who had already successfully done so in multiple instances.  I was actually able to access the data using complex forensic data recovery tools, which were freeware

Sources:

Let Us Define Collective Intelligence as Big as It Is – by Tom Atlee

http://www.communicationagents.com/tom_atlee/2008/12/02/let_us_please_frame_collective_intelligence_as_big_as_it_is.htm

The how and why of collective intelligence – by Michelle Pauli

http://dev8d.jiscinvolve.org/2009/02/11/the-how-and-why-of-collective-intelligence/

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is an XML format that was created to syndicate news, and be a way to share content on the web.  What does RSS mean to me, and why is it important?  RSS is synonymous with efficiency in terms of keeping track of updates on web sites and blogs that are of interest to me.  I can use an RSS aggregator to subscribe to each site so that I can easily parse updates without having to visit each site independently.  Consequently, RSS is a tremendously powerful tool in terms of time management and assimilation of information.

I personally use RSS feeds for news site updates, such as Google News, CNN, NYTIMES, etc.  I quickly look at the headlines to see if any of them are of interest, and if they are click on the headline and access the entire article.  I wasn’t aware that I could use an aggregator to subscribe to blogs until I took this class.  This is of particular interest to me in that I can develop a community of mentors and peers, both professional and casual, to broaden my sphere of influence.  I like the idea of being able to be exposed to a large number of people’s ideas and different forms of expression.  I can find individuals who share similar creative interests and establish a dynamic exchange of information and ideas with them easily, quickly, and en masse.  The dynamic nature of RSS feeds, and the stream of updates they provide will be pivotal to my success as a web designer due to the constantly changing nature of scripting language and standards.  It is essential that I stay abreast of what is happening in the online community, where technology is headed, and who is driving the changes.

Sources:

What is RSS and How Can it Benefit You?

http://www.lv-lt-forum.org/CATEGORIES/what-is-rss-and-how-can-it-benefit-you/

RSS in Plain English – Commoncraft.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU

Learning the Basics of RSS

http://karaofun.com/learning-the-basics-of-rss/