Alex Krupp wrote:
I think all Wikipedians would enjoy the book The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki. The basic premise is that crowds of relatively ignorant individuals make better decisions than small groups of experts. I'm sure everyone here agrees with this as Wikipedia is run this way
It's probably interesting to note that a central theme when I give public talks is precisely that Wikipedia is _not_ run this way, and that wikipedia is _not_ an instance of "The Wisdom of Crowds".
That's not to say that there isn't a lot to the notions of how a group collaboration can improve on what an individual can do. My point is just that Wikipedia functions a lot more like a traditional organization than most people realize -- it's a community of thoughtful people who know each other, not a colony of ants.
--Jimbo