Swarm Intelligence

 "A single ant or bee isn't smart, but their colonies are. The study of swarm intelligence is providing insights that can help humans manage complex systems, from truck routing to military robots." (Peter Miller, 2007)

• Evolution and adaptation of natural systems
• Promoting diversity
• Swarm Intelligence is based on interactions
• Social creatures such as ants, bees, birds and fish are observed
  

    

Social creatures have three characteristics that make them successful:

Flexibility (adapt to change)

Robustness (individual failures don't compromise group performance)

Self-organization (activities are neither controlled nor supervised)

  

Ant Foraging Techniques

• Lay pheromone trails

• Algorithms following the principles of foraging ant behaviour

Application:

• Southwest Airlines - routing and cargo operations

• Hewlett Packard (HP) - telecommunications
• efficient routing of phone calls
• dissolving pheremones

• Factory Efficiency

• Dividing Tasks 

 Predicting Group Behaviour

Integration with Business Intelligence ideas

"The most powerful and fascinating insight from swarm intelligence is that complex collective behaviour can emerge from individuals following simple rules." (Bonabeau & Meyer, 2001)

Three Important Lessons:

1. Unpredictable and often counter-intuitive behaviour can arise from very simple rules

2. A seemingly minor change in the rules can radically alter group behaviour

3. You can MODEL it using constraints

and use the model it to predict group behaviour that emerges, such as:

employee turnover

productivity

loyalty

http://www.icosystem.com/demos/thegame.htm

Advantages of Swarm Intelligence

Small Colonies - Tandem Recruitment

Large Colonies - Mass Recruitment

Medium Colonies - Group Recruitment

• Fast changing and unpredictable environments
• Capital One Philosophy: Employees are primarily responsible to the ideas they have, not to their managers

"Many of our business opportunites are short-lived. We have to move fast to exploit them and move on when they fade." (Bonabeau & Meyer, 2001)

• This system, designed to foster group recruitment, is largely self-organized:
• Good ideas attract others.
• Capital One encourages employees to look for other “food sources” (and rates performance using their employee evaluation system)

• Raiding new markets

Self-organization is being used as a way of exploiting opportunities in volatile, short lived markets, as well as optimizing results within more stable enterprises.

CompanyWay (in Washington) is working with the Bios group to develop a web service that would allow employees to organize and work like swarms of free agents inside their own companies.

• Workers post solution, laying a trail for others to contribute. The resulting work can be integrated with executive decision making tools to give managers control over decision making processes. Rewards in the form of merit points.

•  WEB expansion was due to swarm intelligence: a network emerged from local rules of behaviour and interaction
• BMW posts engineering challenges on its website
• Foldit online gamers crack AIDS enzyme puzzle
• XEROX - mass recruitment
• Switzerland - Migros has 2 million stakeholders (who view themselves as part of a swarm)

Swarm businesses, according to Gloor and Cooper in The Perfect Swarm:

• Gain power by giving it away (Amazon, Ebay)
• willing to share with and support the swarm (Open source)
• put the welfare of members of the swarm ahead of making money

Disadvantages of Swarm Intelligence

• Group behaviour can be startling
• People resist and aren't used to self-organizing systems
• Insect/human opposition
• Quantification
• Self-organizing systems are NEW

 Example

• Collaborative Innovation Networks (COINs)
• Enron
• Ursula Le Guin

Conclusion:

Self-organization is still a radical idea. However, swarm intelligence, along with neural networks, text-mining and genetic algorithms will help to form the generations of the Semantic Web that are rapidly approaching, and help us to make some useful decisions with the mass of information and exchangeable data that we are currently able to access. Used correctly, and with a healthy consideration for constraints and anomalies, swarm intelligence will become an inherent part of Business Intelligence Systems, and the harnessing of collective intelligence will prove to be a powerful tool in this data mining world.

Semantic Web Nature

View more documents from Constantin Stan

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bonabeau, E., & Meyer, C. (2001). Swarm Intelligence: A whole new way to think about business. Harvard Business Review .

Fisher, L. (2009). The Perfect Swarm: The Science of Complexity in Everyday Life. New York: Basic Books.

Gloor, P. A. (2006). Swarm Creativity: Competitive Advantage Through Collaborative Innovation Networks. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gloor, P. A., & Cooper, S. M. (2007). When Swarms go Mad (Egomania at Enron). Chigago: Books 24x7.

Hansen, M. T. (2009). Collaboration, How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Create Unity, and Reap Big Results. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Press.

Hinchey, M. G., Sterritt, R., & Rouff, C. (2007). Swarms and Swarm Intelligence. Computer , 111-113.

Linoff, G. S., & Berry, M. J. (2011). Data Mining Techniques: For Marketing, Sales, and Customer Relationship Management, Third Edition. John Wiley & Sons.

Macoveiciue, M., & Stan, C. (2010, November 1st). Nature Inspired Methods for the Semantic Web. Retrieved November 19th, 2011, from slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/stanconstan/semantic-web-nature/download

Martens, D., Baesens, B., & Fawcett, T. (2011). Editorial survey: swarm intelligence for data mining. Machine Learning , 1-42.

Miller, P. (2007, July). Swarm Theory. Retrieved November 17th, 2011, from National Geographic: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/07/swarms/miller-text

Thankyou

Systems Analysis and Design

 

 

Kevin Kelly

 

• Infrastructure
• Environment
• Strategy

 

                                                   

  Clay Shirky on Institutions vs Collaboration

 

• How do we get things done?
• Power in groups
• What is power
• =D vs $$
• Closed groups vs open networks

 

Yochai Benkler on open-source economics 

 

 

• Information economy
• Radical change
• Distribution of capital

 

 

Charles Leadbeater on Innovation

 

 

• Mountain bikes
• Create tools, not applications
• Consumers are not passive
• Inventors don't know their inventions
• Elasticity in Design

 Howard Rheingold on collaboration

 

 

• Once again, how do people get things done?
• Collaborative intelligence 
• Collective action
• Cooperation

Writing and Community

How digital text will change the novel

I am a writer.

The best way to demonstrate the structure of the writing community is by throwing a rock into the nearest lake. The splash at the centre represents the text (a novel, for example). A series of concentric circles surrounding the splash represent different elements: the first circle represents the author of the text. The next circle represents the reader. The third circle might represent historical influences that have shaped the content of the text. It is an interesting structure for a number of reasons. Firstly, the wrting community is created by individuals who work alone (the authors) who in turn receive support from their readers. Secondly, each reader has the capacity to support many authors. Thirdly, the waves produced by the splash are infinite, for the novel is a complex creature. Throw a few more rocks into the lake and the picture will become a little more clear.

It is an ideological community, one that has always represented the feeling of the times. By reading Marcel Proust, for example, the reader can obtain an insight into the aesthetic pleasures that existed before the First World War. Similarly, after the Second World War, totalitarianism influenced the novelists of the day, as did the atomic bomb.

We are experiencing a historical shift at the moment. The paper based society is on the way out, and the digital age is embedding itself into the current social fabric. With this technological revolution it is up to the writer to make sense of the shifting zeitgeist, although this time the medium of expression is changing. In ten years there will be no publishing houses. Novels will exist in digital form and people will read them electronically. Within ten years it is likely that other mediums will be produced, although I cannot say what they are.

The writing community will not change. It will receive the same support. It will still be a collection of individuals with the similar ideals, it's just that all of them will be online. There will be greater access to books and materials. It is unlikely that newspapers will exist. The ritual of buying the Saturday paper, reading the reviews and then visiting the bookstore to see if they have a copy of the one that captured your interest will no longer exist. For example, using Twitter, I 'follow' The New York Review of Books, who upload daily book reviews which I read on my phone. I can then download these texts to an e-reader if I wish. Twitter itself supports the community by providing instant community updates, as well as inviting online feedback.

In the Weekend Australian just published, the chief literary critic, Geordie Williamson mourns the demise of the antiquarian book trade, "The thrill of the chase that made book collecting such a romantic undertaking was reduced to the banal scanning of eBay listings, uploaded by faceless digital traders with no experience and a tendency to sharp practice." (Williamson, 2011)

There will be little time for nostalgia in this urgent new world. Milan Kundera, in 'The Art of the Novel' says that "The unification of the planet's history, that humanist dream which God has spitefully allowed to come true, has been accompanied by a process of dizzying reduction." (Kundera, 2000) In his essay he blames globalization, the mass media and political economy for the death of the novel, however, he does not consider the digital media and the freedoms that it gives to the writing community. The novel will not die, it will simply take some other shape.

For a start, authors are able to self-publish. History will decide whether the text has any resonance, yet it is the freedom given to the members of this community that will enable it to thrive. Information overload is a concept that has little effect on the minds of isolated individuals, unless they are planning to write about it, or at the very least, be inspired by it. Globalization will not overload our minds, it will simply provide us with more choices.

Texts are less expensive, if not free. The public domain is expanding. Globalization will allow writers to appeal to the reasoning of other cultures. It will be like the Library of Babel, a place invented by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, a place where you can find all of the books.

Professor Robert Darnton, the director of the Harvard University Library in an article about the new digital library that is forming says:

“Perhaps Google itself could be enlisted to the cause of the digital public library. It has scanned about 15 million books; two million of that total are in the public domain and could be turned over to the library as the foundation of its collection. The company would lose nothing by this generosity, and might win admiration for its good deed.

Through technological wizardry and sheer audacity, Google has shown how we can transform the intellectual riches of our libraries, books lying inert and underused on shelves. But only a digital public library will provide readers with what they require to face the challenges of the 21^st century – a vast collection of resources that can be tapped, free of charge, by anyone, anywhere, at any time.” (Darnton, 2011)

The digital universe can only increase the richness of the writing community, in fact, it is almost made for us.

Darnton, R. (2011, March 23). A Digital Library Better Than Google's. The New York Times (online edition) , p. A31.

Dyson, F. (2011, April 7). How We Know. The New York Review of Books (online edition) .

Kundera, M. (2000). The Art of the Novel. New York: Grove Press.

Lantz, D. (2010, February 22). Publishing your book on Amazon's Kindle. Retrieved March 27, 2011, from You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8BDnQNcyqI&feature=related

Williamson, G. (2011, March 26-27). Rare: A Life Among Antiquarian Books (Book Review). The Australian , p. 20.

Media Richness and Education

As a language teacher, encouraging students to make use of available technology is important. Mobile learning applications are becoming prolific. There are translation applications, listening exercises, vocabulary builders, interactive iconography exercises and more, and they are all fun , and research shows that they are just as effective as traditional classroom methods.

While m-learning is an exciting medium, it is complemented by the personal computer and the laptop (and now, the ipad and other interactive books) which are able to present learning in more sophisticated ways, particulary when group work is involved. For all of these platforms, the Internet provides enormous resources. "It is a vast and flexible resource centre where structured lessons, grammars, lexicons, fonts and other resources can be developed, shared, and added to." (Yeoman, 2000)

Where does media richness come into this? Media richness is concerned with the quality of information that is received when using technology to source the information. "Originally, Daft and Lengel created a media richness hierarchy with four criteria:

1 The availability of feedback
2 The capacity of the medium to transmit multiple cues
3 The use of natural language
4 The personal focus of the medium.

In descending order of richness, they produced the following spectrum: face to face, video, telephone, email, postal letter, note, memo, flier and bulletin." (Shepherd, 2006)

It would seem that this model was created exclusively for language teachers. Providing feedback and the use of natural language are central concepts  in language teaching theory. As these theories evolve, a learner centred approach to language teaching is emerging as the leading model. (Savignon, 2007)

In terms of learner feedback and media richness, m-learning and e-learning lie somewhere between 'face to face' and 'video.' Interactive screens are entirely learner centered. They are perfectly tailored for providing information in a teaching environment, and by using these new technologies together the students will have a rich experience in effective learning.

Media rich learning would particularly benefit students that have no English exposure outside of the classroom. Communication technologies enable these students to participate in virtual classrooms. Similarly,  geographically isolated students can benefit from media rich distance learning. Online mini-worlds such as 'Second Life' are dynamic, invaluable resources for both teachers and students.

The virtual classroom promotes collaborative learning and collective intelligence, and as
access to the Internet increases, language learning opportunities and problems such as literacy can be addressed through media rich platforms.
Marina Lu, in the conclusion of her study on the effectiveness of using mobile phones to increase vocabulary notes that the the mobile group in her study had greater vocabulary gains than their paper-group counterparts. (Lu, 2008) In order to enrich vocabulary learning, a useful mobile application would be one where the user uses the camera on his mobile phone to display the surrounding environment. With recognition software, the phone could attach the correct English word to the images on the display, for example, 'Window', or 'Taipan.' Direct learning using a phone and an external environment is the ultimate in media rich experience.

Universities are receiving grants for m-learning. Bond University has received a grant to develop games for the Android device. In 2005, the University of Wisconcin recieved a grant for mobile language learning. "In converting from analog to digital, a campus team decided to change the whole language-learning environment." (Gilgen, 2005) The use of games for interactive learning is becoming ubiquitous. Educational games are the way of the future.

Interesting Web Sites:

Web Site of the Nobel Prize
EDUCAUSE

The possibilities for educational games and language learning are exponential. During this decade we will see a change in the teacher-student relationship. The teacher will be there to guide the dynamics of learning, but it will be the classroom itself that comes to life by allowing students to transcend its walls and removing traditional limitations.

We are surrounded by 'Media Richness.' In this classroom (DMS302) we are subjected to podcasts, twitter, blogs, ilearn, turnitin and powerpoint. We have access to ipods. Our leader is digitally savvy. We have been subjected to Media Richness Theory and we have survived the experience, and suffer only positive side-effects.

In the language classroom, channeling information-media will ultimately heighten the cognitive learning processes of the modern language student.

Mobilese

Educational. (2004, January 23). Retrieved March 21, 2011, from Nobelprize.org: http://nobelprize.org/educational/

Educause. (2010, January 15). Retrieved March 21, 2011, from Educause: http://net.educause.edu

Gilgen, R. (2005). Holding the World in Your Hand: Creating a Mobile Language Learning Environment. EDUCAUSE Quarterly Magazine , 30-39.

Lan, Y.-F., & Sie, Y.-S. (2010). Using RSS to support mobile learning based on media richness theory. Computers and Education , 723-732.

Lu, M. (2008). Effectiveness of vocabulary learning via mobile phone. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning , 515-525.

Lusk, E. J. (2006). Email: Its decision support systems inroads - An update. Decision Support Systems , 328-322.

Mobilese. (n.d.). Retrieved March 21, 2011, from You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9lgNCv3-MA&feature=related

Savignon, S. J. (2007). Forty years of language teaching: The new millenium. Language Teaching , 1-15.

Shephard, M. M. (2006). Media Richness Theory and the Distance Education Environment. The Journal of Computer Information Systems , 1-10.

Webster, J., & Hackley, P. (1997). Teaching Effectiveness in Technology-Mediated Distance Learning. Academy of Management Journal , 1282-1309.

Yeoman, E. (2000). Aboriginal language-learning in cyberspace: A typology of language-related web-sites and their potential uses. Canadian Journal of Native Education , 120-134.

Collective Intelligence

'Collective Intelligence can be defined as the knowledge that is derived from the participation or teamwork of many individuals working together.'  (Czernicki, 2009)

We are entering the Knowledge Age, and within its realm exists the 'knowledge space.' (Levy, 1997)

This includes knowledge management. As a systems analyst in the twenty first century (one of my future pathways), the use of employee networks to harness collective intelligence will enable me to introduce a more effective level of decision making into corporate culture.

Levy, in his book 'Collective Intelligence' says that ' the prosperity of a nation, geographical region, business or individual depends on their ability to navigate the knowledge space.' (Levy, 1997) He also uses the term 'innovation network.'

For a systems analyst, the implementation of an innovation network within an organizational culture will heighten the potential for that organization to achieve success. Introducing a social intranet as a way of communicating within an organization will be a highly effective to improve communication and promote innovative ideas.

A systems analyst is employed by a company to improve its IT system. Before implementing the final solution, it is important to consult with the end-user. They are the ones who will be using the system on a daily basis, and so their feedback is crucial. By implementing an end-user feedback network (where the employees are able to view other employee comments about the history of the system and potential benefits and hazards that they are able to predict) the employees are directly involved in the process of change.

After discovering the different needs of the people within the organization, rather than give the usual recommendations, the systems analyst should then introduce a software system that incorporates the power of collective intelligence (in the form of a social networking program engineered to integrate with the company). Used in this way, it becomes a collaborative intelligence that drives the organization. Collaboration is the key to success.

The main benefit of this system is that the user is involved. In a network situation, users can view the input of other users and gauge the usefulness of their own inputs. This would be far more satisfying than merely generating a report which is then viewed by a superior. Participation and interaction will lead the users towards generating superior data. The lengthy process of finding old files and emails would no longer necessary, as this could be achieved with a simple search using the new intranet software.

Bart Czernicki simplifies this process into two categories:

Collecting User-Generated Data, and

Displaying User-Generated Data

(Czernicki, 2009)

A little like a blog, I suppose, or a Facebook account.

One interesting method employed in software that uses collective intelligence is a ratings system (not unlike the ‘like’ button) where you can rate the input of other users according to their useful, productive and innovative qualities.

The systems analyst (moi) can use an exciting approach to introduce change to the organization. The team needs to realize that it will be transforming into a virtual team. The new innovative network will have a human focus, problem solving will be enhanced, time to complete projects will be reduced and as a result, costs will be reduced.

An effective leader within this environment would need to possess emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence, collective intelligence and collaboration will lead these virtual employees (without them even knowing it) towards the highest of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, that of self-actualization, and everyone will benefit.

The systems analyst who is able to alter the culture of an organization so that it adopts these methods will be creating the knowledge workers of the future.

‘The more we are able to form intelligent communities, as open-minded cognitive subjects capable of initiative, imaginative, and rapid response, the more we will be able to ensure our success in a highly competitive environment.’ (Levy, 1997)

This new digital world is much the same as the old in that a little creativity goes a long way.

Czernicki, B. (2009). Next-Generation Business Intelligence Software with Silverlight 3. New York: Apress.

Levy, P. (1997). Collective Intelligence. Cambridge: Perseus Books.

Nemiro, J., Beyerlein, M., Bradley, L., & Beyerlein, S. (2008). The Handbook of High Performance Virtual Teams: A Toolkit for Collaborating across Boundaries. San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass.

Tactic 8 - Use Collective Intelligence. (n.d.). Retrieved February 28, 2011, from Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/9270471

                                                              

                                                          Using Collective Intelligence

Trandmedia Storytelling

Henry Jenkins, in his book, 'Convergence Culture' says that "A transmedia story unfolds across multiple media platforms, with each new text making a distinctive and valuable contribution to the whole." (Jenkins, 2006)

In the twenty-first century, digital convergence and the rapid adoption of new technologies allow the user to follow complex narritives across these platforms. The levels of immersion continue to expand. Devices such as the ipad allow the user to access these narrative levels simultaneously.

Jenkins goes on to say that "Reading across the media sustains a depth of experience that motivates more consumption." (Jenkins, 2006)

Transmedia story telling has always existed. The literate could read a Shakespeare play the day before it was due to be staged, thus heightening their experience. With the appearance of comic books and science-fiction narratives, the possibilities of expanding the stories has evolved.

A good example of transmedia storytelling is the X-Men, which started out as a comic book with a linear narrative. The storylines were contiguous, and most dramas were resolved within two or three issues. Then one day an island called Krakoa defeated the X-men and they needed to be replaced. The new X-men were so popular that they spawned a series of new titles. The old X-men appeared once again in their own comic book, and individual characters, such as Wolverine, were given their own series. Films were made, a number of cartoons developed and computer games appeared. In order to keep up with the universe of their favourite character, readers need to consume a greater quantity of media. They are driven by an impulse that requires them to satisfy their desire for knowledge. How did Wolverine get his metal skeleton? By gathering clues and information from different sources the reader is able to live out his or her fantasies through digital and textual interactivity.

Fantasy. That is the underlying impulse that fuels this industry.

 For the fantasy to work, the story needs to have mass appeal. Why do the X-men, Star Wars and Blade Runner have mass appeal? I feel that it is because they are absolutely infested with archetypes. Carl Jung, in his book 'Man and His Symbols,' says that archetypes are "without known origin; and they reproduce themselves in any time or in any part of the world - even where  transmission by direct descent or "cross fertilization" through migration must be ruled out." (Jung, 1964)-Archetypes reside, whether we like it or not, in the collective unconscious, and we respond to them when they are presented before us.

Transmedia storytelling is the perfect platform for a writer to expand his ideas. My career as a writer is just beginning, and a story I wrote, called 'The Last Puppet Show' has the potential to develop a life of its own. It can be made into a play. It can become a short film. It contains archetypes such as harlequins and kings, knights and clowns, so the essential plot can be reproduced in different cultures and on multiple media platforms. A video game, based on puppets and kingdoms could be created, where the kingdoms are linked by the level of madness online players can achieve. In a mad world, only the mad survive.

If I were interested in the creation of wealth, I would subject my ideas to "co-creation." Jenkins (who seems to be the man) says that in co-creation, "the companies collaborate from the beginning to create content they know plays well in each of their sectors, allowing each medium to generate new experiences for the consumer and expand points of entry into the franchise." (Jenkins, 2006)

A knowledge economy driven by social production.

Certainly there is the corporate side of transmedia story telling, and it cannot be ignored, but I am more interested in the creation of worlds. Applying collective intelligence (the generation of knowledge through networking) to transmedia storytelling (and other user-centred platforms) will lead us into an age undreamed of, one where the digital fabric of society fuels our knowledge and our fantasies.
Tim Dwyer in his book ‘Media Convergence’ says that ‘Levy’s view of the future (Pierre Levy, proponent of collective intelligence) is one where society is organized around two trajectories: the recreation of the social bond through our relation to knowledge, and the development of a collective intelligence.” (Dwyer, 2010) An addition to these trajectories is our relation to culture, and our cultural knowledge.

A world where intelligence and the unconscious are in harmony is an infinite playground for the writer.

An example of careless transmedia storytelling

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dwyer, T. (2010). Media Convergence. New York: Open University Press.

Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where old and new media collide. New York: New York University Press.

Jung, C. (1964). Man and his Symbols. London: Picador.

Star Wars - The Kiss. (n.d.). Retrieved February 22, 2011, from You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb1-56aC9YY&feature=related