Digital Swarming
A few months back I was talking about the role of collective intelligence in generating higher quality, faster decisions. My discussion was focused on integrating social networking concepts and digital fabrics into engineering collaboration environments for large scale programs. The response of one individual – who I’ll call John - was: “great ideas, but I don’t buy the whole social networking thing. I mean if I listened to the mass social network I would be eating at McDonalds, the most popular restaurant. Yet I’m a food critic who enjoys expensive food and nice wines. So I don’t see how the mass can help me.”
My response was “very valid, but what if you and I just met and I realized you had an interest in wines and restaurants. I excitingly talk about a new favorite restaurant with great French wines. You try it, like it, and tell your friends. You also let me know you enjoyed the recommendation, and I introduce you to a friend of mine with similar taste. All in all we’ve just expanded our network of trusted experts/friends. Would you gain any value out of this linkage of select groups who help expand, experiment, and refine our choices?”.
Social networking applied to public and private sector environments is not about the masses. It is about tapping into the expertise, experiences, and insights of those who are directly trusted, are trusted by those you trust, and/or show a level of interest based on some event, an event worth exploring more with that individual’s or group’s insights. The power of collective intelligence increases exponentially when you think in terms of trusted or selective social networking, not mass social networking. John’s answer was “well I guess so…”.
This point is simple, but profound, for I believe that a new approach to collaborative decision-making approach is emerging. An approach that blends elements of social networking with human networking and with emerging capabilities provisioned through digital fabrics. I have been developing this approach, which I call “digital swarming”, with colleagues inside and outside Cisco and the details are set out in the attached whitepaper.
Digital Swarming is about a digitally connected human and machine world. A world where dynamically forming, scaling, reconfiguring and disbanding collaborative communities swarm for a cause, learning from each other, lowering cost and cycle times, and producing outcomes and effects that are greater than an individual or small group could produce on its own.
I think this approach has huge relevance for the public sector, given the complex interrelated problems it faces where they relate to the economy, sustainability, education or public safety. The opportunity to accelerate public/private/people partnerships to achieve results is the effect we all are seeking. The Digital Swarming framework is meant to contribute to this goal. I’ll do another post soon on some of the ideas and components of the framework, but I would be very interested in people’s reaction to the general concept as set out here.
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Comments
Let me put a slightly different spin on this. Of course the concept of 'digital swarming' - or creating what we might describe as 'connected decision spaces' - is absolutely applicable to the public sector. In fact, I can't think of a concept that is both more applicable and compelling than this focus on making better use of collective intelligence when you think of the tangle of 'wicked' problems that public policy is expected to find answers to. How did President-elect Obama put it? "Two wars, a planet in peril and the worst financial crisis in 10 years"...Oh yes, some digital swarming is very much in order.
But here's the thing. I think governments have, for some time, assumed that they are doing something like this in days gone by. They've had consultations, they've commissioned expert reports and studies, they've bought market research and done focus groups.
Now, we have a set of technologies which, enabling and accelerating key culture and process changes, take the instinct for collaboration to a completely new space. Two implications follow - we should expect to see a steady infiltration of these new capabilities to speed the decision-making processes of government and we might expect to see some resistance to that outcome, driven in part by the realisation that these new approaches will rearrange to some extent the locus of authority and power.
Digital swarming has some fascinating implications for underlying notions of power, control and authority. How quickly they become more commonplace in government - as perhaps in other sectors too - will be the outcome of a contest between the desire to realise their promise and the ability to confront their deeper, structural implications.
posted about 1 year ago
Are you still exploring applications of digital swarming? ...or looking for examples?
posted about 1 year ago
I am sure we are. What examples did you have in mind ssenator?
posted about 1 year ago