We Are Smarter Than Me
Encyclopedia
We Are Smarter Than Me is a collaborative-writing project using wiki
software, whose initial goal was producing a book about decision making
processes that use large numbers of people. The first book was published as a printed book, late in 2007, by the publishing conglomerate Pearson Education
. Along with Pearson, the project's four core sponsors include research institutes of the MIT Sloan School of Management
and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
.
The wiki book was featured in a November 28, 2006 broadcast of NPR
's All Things Considered
.
Initiated by illustrious faculty from the Wharton School and MIT Sloan School of Management
The people behind this initiative are Barry Libert, CEO of Shared Insights, Jon Spector, vice dean and director of Wharton’s Aresty Institute of Executive Education, Thomas W. Malone
, Patrick J. McGovern Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management
, and founder and director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence
, Tim Moore, editor-in-chief of Pearson Education and Yoram Wind, Lauder Professor and Professor of Marketing at the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania
and founding director of the Wharton “think tank,” the SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management.
The project was started in late 2006 and a wiki
website was established to allow people to contribute text to the book. It was published on October 5, 2007.
"over a million students, faculty and alumni of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the MIT Sloan School of Management, as well as leaders, authors, and experts from the fields of management and technology were invited to contribute in a wiki-based community that coalesced at wearesmarter.org. Members were asked to develop and share their insights about why community approaches work or don't work when it comes to marketing, business development, distribution, and more, and what companies have to do to make them work better."
they had reached the following participation statistics by the time the book was ready for publication:
The project's website reports that "In addition to actual community members and contributors, the project was influenced by hundreds of bloggers, Podcasters, and conference attendees at the inaugural Community 2.0 Conference in Las Vegas."
Chairman:
Board Members:
and The Wisdom of Crowds
have identified the phenomena of emerging social networks, but they do not confront how businesses can profit from the wisdom of crowds".
The book contains case studies from several companies, including: Eli Lilly and Company
, Amazon.com
, Dell Computers, Cambrian House
, Angie's List
, Procter & Gamble
, Forbes.com, Newsweek
and NPR
's radio show "All Things Considered
".
The book ranked #6 in Amazon's "Best of 2007"
, and "Top 10 book to inspire your business for 2008" from TheStreet.com
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
software, whose initial goal was producing a book about decision making
Decision making
Decision making can be regarded as the mental processes resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making process produces a final choice. The output can be an action or an opinion of choice.- Overview :Human performance in decision terms...
processes that use large numbers of people. The first book was published as a printed book, late in 2007, by the publishing conglomerate Pearson Education
Pearson Education
Pearson Education is an international educational publishing and technology company providing textbooks and other educational material, such as multimedia learning tools...
. Along with Pearson, the project's four core sponsors include research institutes of the MIT Sloan School of Management
MIT Sloan School of Management
The MIT Sloan School of Management is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts....
and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
The Wharton School is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wharton was the world’s first collegiate business school and the first business school in the United States...
.
The wiki book was featured in a November 28, 2006 broadcast of NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
's All Things Considered
All Things Considered
All Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...
.
History and Overview of project
The project was started as "a business community formed by business professionals to research and discuss the impact of social networks on traditional business functions".Initiated by illustrious faculty from the Wharton School and MIT Sloan School of Management
The people behind this initiative are Barry Libert, CEO of Shared Insights, Jon Spector, vice dean and director of Wharton’s Aresty Institute of Executive Education, Thomas W. Malone
Thomas W. Malone
Thomas W. Malone is the Patrick J. McGovern Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is also the founder and director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence and was one of the two founding co-directors of the MIT Initiative on "Inventing the Organizations of the...
, Patrick J. McGovern Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management
MIT Sloan School of Management
The MIT Sloan School of Management is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts....
, and founder and director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence
MIT Center for Collective Intelligence
The MIT Center for Collective Intelligence is a research center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, headed by Professor Thomas W. Malone that focuses on the study of collective intelligence....
, Tim Moore, editor-in-chief of Pearson Education and Yoram Wind, Lauder Professor and Professor of Marketing at the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
and founding director of the Wharton “think tank,” the SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management.
The project was started in late 2006 and a wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
website was established to allow people to contribute text to the book. It was published on October 5, 2007.
Participation
According to the project's website,"over a million students, faculty and alumni of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the MIT Sloan School of Management, as well as leaders, authors, and experts from the fields of management and technology were invited to contribute in a wiki-based community that coalesced at wearesmarter.org. Members were asked to develop and share their insights about why community approaches work or don't work when it comes to marketing, business development, distribution, and more, and what companies have to do to make them work better."
they had reached the following participation statistics by the time the book was ready for publication:
- 4375 Registered Members
- 737 forum posts
- 250 wiki contributors
- 1600 wiki posts
The project's website reports that "In addition to actual community members and contributors, the project was influenced by hundreds of bloggers, Podcasters, and conference attendees at the inaugural Community 2.0 Conference in Las Vegas."
Advisory Board
The project's advisory board for phase 1 (the writing of the first book) included:Chairman:
- Thomas W. MaloneThomas W. MaloneThomas W. Malone is the Patrick J. McGovern Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is also the founder and director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence and was one of the two founding co-directors of the MIT Initiative on "Inventing the Organizations of the...
- the Patrick J. McGovern Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of ManagementMIT Sloan School of ManagementThe MIT Sloan School of Management is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts....
, founder and director of the MIT Center for Collective IntelligenceMIT Center for Collective IntelligenceThe MIT Center for Collective Intelligence is a research center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, headed by Professor Thomas W. Malone that focuses on the study of collective intelligence....
.
Board Members:
- Tim Moore of Wharton School Publishing and FTPress.
- Jimmy WalesJimmy WalesJimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company....
- founder and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia FoundationWikimedia FoundationWikimedia Foundation, Inc. is an American non-profit charitable organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States, and organized under the laws of the state of Florida, where it was initially based...
, a non-profit corporation that operates the WikipediaWikipediaWikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
project, and several other wikiWikiA wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
projects. - Yoram (Jerry) Wind is The Lauder Professor and Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School of the University of PennsylvaniaWharton School of the University of PennsylvaniaThe Wharton School is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wharton was the world’s first collegiate business school and the first business school in the United States...
. He is the founding director of the Wharton "think tank," The SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management. - Philip Evans - a senior vice president in the Boston office of the Boston Consulting GroupBoston Consulting GroupThe Boston Consulting Group is a global management consulting firm with offices in 42 countries. It is recognized as one of the most prestigious management consulting firms in the world. It is one of only three companies to appear in the top 15 of Fortunes "Best Companies to Work For" report for...
. author of the best-selling book Blown to Bits.
Content
According to the authors, "the goal of the project was to develop a book that addresses what other best-selling books on community have not. WikinomicsWikinomics
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything is a book by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, first published in December 2006. It explores how some companies in the early 21st century have used mass collaboration and open-source technology, such as wikis, to be successful...
and The Wisdom of Crowds
The Wisdom of Crowds
The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations, published in 2004, is a book written by James Surowiecki about the aggregation of information in groups, resulting in decisions that, he argues, are often better...
have identified the phenomena of emerging social networks, but they do not confront how businesses can profit from the wisdom of crowds".
The book contains case studies from several companies, including: Eli Lilly and Company
Eli Lilly and Company
Eli Lilly and Company is a global pharmaceutical company. Eli Lilly's global headquarters is located in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the United States...
, Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
, Dell Computers, Cambrian House
Cambrian House
Cambrian House began as a crowdsourcing community that pioneered the technology to tap crowds for the best software ideas. To power open innovation in other businesses, they developed a crowdsourcing platform Chaordix – the technology to harness a crowd for breakthrough ideas.-Results:Launched in...
, Angie's List
Angie's List
Angie’s List is a website that aggregates verified consumer reviews of service companies as a way to "capture word-of-mouth wisdom". Angie’s List has about 1.5 million subscribers throughout the United States and Canada who post an average of about 40,000 reviews each month...
, Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....
Media Coverage and Acceptance
The project received wide coverage in US media, including such venues as The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, Forbes.com, Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
and NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
's radio show "All Things Considered
All Things Considered
All Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...
".
The book ranked #6 in Amazon's "Best of 2007"
Amazon's Best Books of the Year
Amazon's Best Books of the Year is a list of best books created yearly by Amazon.com. It is a list of best books picked by Amazon editors and customers. It began in 2000. Customer favorites are ranked according to the number of sales made through October, for books published in that calender year...
, and "Top 10 book to inspire your business for 2008" from TheStreet.com
TheStreet.com
-History:TheStreet.com, Inc., was co-founded in 1996 by Jim Cramer and Martin Peretz. It is traded on the NASDAQ Global Market. The company is headquartered at 14 Wall Street in New York City. Its stock was made public in May 1999 under the direction of past Chairman and Chief Executive Officer...
Further and Related Reading
- Surowiecki, JamesJames SurowieckiJames Michael Surowiecki is an American journalist. He is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he writes a regular column on business and finance called "The Financial Page".-Background:...
(2004). The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations Little, Brown ISBN 0-316-86173-1 - Cass R. Sunstein, Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge (2006) Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195189280
- Thomas W. MaloneThomas W. MaloneThomas W. Malone is the Patrick J. McGovern Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is also the founder and director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence and was one of the two founding co-directors of the MIT Initiative on "Inventing the Organizations of the...
, The Future of Work: How the New Order of Business Will Shape Your Organization, Your Management Style and Your Life Harvard Business School Press (April 2, 2004) ISBN 978-1591391258