Social technologies and collective intelligence

Abstract

Social technologies is an interdisciplinary research field, which focuses on applying information, communication and emerging technologies to serve the goals of society. Generally, social technologies in this monograph are defined as digital technologies used by people to interact socially by creating, enhancing and exchanging content together. The scientific problem in this research work is defined as a question: how could social technologies contribute to the development of smart and inclusive society? The subject of the research are online community projects (Collective Intelligence systems) which include collective decision-making tools and technological solutions allowing and encouraging individual and team creativity, entrepreneurship, on-line collaboration, new forms of self-regulation and self-governance, self-configuration of communities by considering these projects as being catalyst for the emergence of CI. Collective Intelligence systems can be conceptualized as knowledge networks created by web-mediated interaction amongst individuals with personal knowledge. The development of the knowledge network is essentially based on the creation, transmission and fusion of knowledge within the community. Collective Intelligence systems are composed of humans and information communication technologies. Human intelligence in convergence with “machine” intelligence creates opportunities for network participants to achieve valuable activity results. Although online communities are often criticized for the lack of direct contact, yet, in comparison with traditional communities, the networked ones can operate more efficiently due to technologies that make it possible not only exchange large amounts of information, but also help to process the information more efficiently. The CI emergence in the system can be confirmed when the community exhibits higher intellectual abilities than an individual member does. [...]