Wisdom and Power of the Crowds

Wisdom of the Crowds
Part 1: Can Crowd Wisdom Solve Regulatory Problems?
Part 2: Crowdsourcing

Part 1: Can crowd wisdom solve regulatory problems? A review and some provocations
What is it to harness the views and opinions of “lay people” to solve regulatory problems? And what counts as “crowd wisdom” or a “regulatory problem” anyway? Based on a critical review of current thinking and selected applications of crowdsourcing schemes in regulation, this paper aims to provoke a lively discussion about the most promising avenues for future research at the intersection of knowledge, politics, technology and participation.

Part 2: Crowdsourcing
Enabled Innovating - Instruments and Methods of Internet-based Collaborative Innovation: The Internet as a medium allows for new tools and ways of collaboration and exchange in innovation. People all over the world can share ideas and comments, jointly improve concepts in real-time and thus, innovate. This article will introduce the various instruments and methods that have recently come to life and thereby reorder the methods for innovation. Be it the various applications of crowdsourcing as in idea competitions or advances in the lead user method. Furthermore will this article cluster and evaluate specific terms that has emerged in recent years. A literature review will deepen the understanding of what is out there and pinpoint current trends. The article shall conclude with four to five questions paving the way for further research and providing a viable notion of the institute’s research agenda and future projects.

Top 5 Research Questions

We have identified a number of research questions on this topic. Here are the top 5:

What accounts for the rise of „crowd wisdom“ as an object od interest in regulatory policy?

What ist he day-to-day work that goes into establishing, maintaining and participating an a crowd wisdom schemes in practice?

How can we unterstand the relationship between processes of knowledge production and processes of regulation?

How do crowd wisdom schemes help us rethink our current understanding of regulation and democracy?

How can we study a phenomenon that is still „under construction“?