The rise of the "information society" offers not only considerable peril but also great promise. Beset from all sides by a never-ending barrage of ...
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Mar 16, 2009
getAbstract
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Discussion of information sharing and collective thought
In this delightful book, Cass R. Sunstein offers a cogent, compact and gently witty discussion of information sharing. His explanations of how different knowledge-aggregation processes work are extremely useful. They range from the theoretical (laying out the philosophical structures underpinning deliberation) to the practical (offering focused and specific suggestions for improvement). This certainly isn’t the first book on how More...
In this delightful book, Cass R. Sunstein offers a cogent, compact and gently witty discussion of information sharing. His explanations of how different knowledge-aggregation processes work are extremely useful. They range from the theoretical (laying out the philosophical structures underpinning deliberation) to the practical (offering focused and specific suggestions for improvement). This certainly isn’t the first book on how More...
Dec 11, 2008
Bruce
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Here is Cass R. Sunstein in a Wired spirit bloviating about five different models of decision-making or intelligence (as in fact-finding and analysis): statistical treatment of poll data, deliberation (your basic committee), wikis, blogs, and prediction markets. He offers a variety of examples of each, cites study results analyzing their respective success rates and failure conditions, and concludes by rehashing his conclusions for the nth time. Only a law professor could turn 6 pages of conten
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Nov 11, 2007
Brent
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This book is great for understanding group psychology and how it applies to communication and collaboration such as predictive markets, deliberation, wikis, open-source software, blogs, et al.
The cons of such collaboration being groupthink, polarization, hidden profiles, and information cocoons. The pros being Condorcet Jury theorem, Hayek theorem, and information aggregation.
The cons of such collaboration being groupthink, polarization, hidden profiles, and information cocoons. The pros being Condorcet Jury theorem, Hayek theorem, and information aggregation.
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Jun 12, 2009
Scott
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This book may be more interesting and valuable than my 3-star rating would indicate. What Cass Sunstein does well here is critique different methods of group decision-making, including statistical groups (taking the average assessment from a group of people as the answer), deliberation, and the relatively under-utilized concept of prediction markets (where informed users can place a bet on a particular outcome). What he does not do well in this book is explain the nuts-and-bolts operation of pre
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Apr 13, 2008
Graham
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http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2...
Have you had your tonsils removed? Did you ever eat an order of freedom fries? Has your government ever invaded a country on the mistaken impression that it had weapons of mass destruction? If you answered yes, you may have fallen victim to one of the dozens of follies Cass Sunstein says can emerge in group decision-making. In his new book Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge, Sunstein explores how people can gather accurate informatio More...
Have you had your tonsils removed? Did you ever eat an order of freedom fries? Has your government ever invaded a country on the mistaken impression that it had weapons of mass destruction? If you answered yes, you may have fallen victim to one of the dozens of follies Cass Sunstein says can emerge in group decision-making. In his new book Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge, Sunstein explores how people can gather accurate informatio More...
Jan 26, 2011
Infotopia, by Cass R. Sunstein, has a little dry statistics textbook vibe, but the material is great. How groups make decisions, how sometimes groups make better (or worse) decisions than the average of their members, and how to make it better in the information age: prediction markets, wikis, open source projects, blogs. Psychology, statistics, information technology, good stuff. Now he just needs Stephen Hawking as a ghost writer to de-textbook-ify the prose.
Feb 23, 2009
Gerald
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This is a very smart book that discusses in a straightforward way the group dynamics behind various forms of knowledge aggregation such as wikis, public opinion polls and the like. Does a nice job of explaining in simple terms "how deliberation works." There are many other treatments of comparable topics, but this is very readable and clear. I'm going to try it with a class next term, in fact.
Jan 19, 2008
Peter
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Infotopia dealt with how groups make decisions and have a collective knowledge. It spoke to a collection of recent changes that in this field: wikis, blogs, predictive markets, and the open source movement. While I am already fairly well versed on these changes I still found this section to be a good overview and fairly interesting.
For me, the most interesting part of the book was the first 75%, which dealt with the common ways groups make decisions and have collective knowledge an More...
For me, the most interesting part of the book was the first 75%, which dealt with the common ways groups make decisions and have collective knowledge an More...
Oct 28, 2010
Meghan
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Really interesting, and enlightening book. It really opened by eyes to how groups and discussion can impact decisions and what people believe. If you are at all interested in information and knowledge creation, you should read this book.
Apr 19, 2010
Good overall review of crowd sourcing - the considerable pros, but the pitfalls as well, and how to mitigate them.
Aug 30, 2009
Laurie
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Have to read this since I'm in grad school and the whole book is assigned for next Tuesday's class.
Jan 03, 2008
Patrick
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A very interesting discussion of how groups make bad decisions. It is a relatively quick read, and you have to skip over some of the Chicago wackiness, but there is a lot there. Highly recommended for the student of information management and the web 2.0 crowd. It should inform all our ideas about the design of systems that allow people to collaborate on decisions, ratings, or the creation of other public goods. Designed poorly, these system will behave badly for reasons Sunstein explores.
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Jan 19, 2010
Martín
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The first part is great, especially the insights about biases in deliberative groups, and prediction markets (although it needs a revisit due to the economic crisis). The second part is a little dated, but the examples are still valid.
Aug 10, 2008
Hollis
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While the topic (ways to aggregate information across multiple people to improve decision making) is interesting and relevant and he does a nice job of outlining the pros and cons of various alternatives, I didn't find it as engaging as Wisdom of Crowds. I ended up just skimming it, and you can get the main points by reading the prologue.
Sep 16, 2008
Gil
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I found this very insightful, especially since he grounded the discussion in the Jury system -- not in wikipedia. The issues are not new, and they can be understood from multiple perspectives. Sunstein shares his, and I found it fascinating and very helpful.
May 09, 2011
I read this book in a rather desultory manner-- never really getting engaged and giving up on it eventually.
Mar 26, 2010
In the middle of it, not too impressed so far. A bit dated for a cyberworld piece, published in 2006, but explains some central concepts of open source software, crowdsourcing, wikis, etc.
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