Scoble’s Link Blog

Session Two started off with James Surowiecki, the author of the excellent, The Wisdom of Crowds.  He began by reading two extensive tsunami blog posts and then showed the two most-watched blog tsunami videos.  I was kind of wondering, "WTF?"

But, not to worry.  He quickly explained that his talk was about the maturation of the blogosphere, which now must be spoken of in "pre-" and "post-tsunami" eras.  He noted, without attribution, the early reaction to the tsunami coverage, immortalized by Scoble’s question: "where are the bloggers on this?"

He asked three questions:

1. What does the blogosphere tell us about (non-economic) motivation?
2. What do blogs tell us aboiut access to collective intelligence?
3. What is the dark side of the blogosphere?

OK, here are his takes:

1. Since most bloggers are doing this with no financialremuneration, it tells us that human motivation transcends simpleeconomic models.  Duh!

He also believes that the open source model is applicable to a wide range of situations.

2. We know that crowds, under the right conditions, can be smarter than individuals.  Those conditions include independent judgments.  So, while any particular post on a subject might be idiotic, the collective set of posts on that subject are likely to be highly accurate.  He cited Dan Gillmor’s statement that, "my readers know moe than I do" about the subjects in his column, book, or blog.  (BTW, I ran into Dan at the after-session acquarium party, and he genuinely appreciated James’ reference to his work.)

3. The "dark side" of the blogosphere is conformity…which is sort of like Sartre saying hell is other people.  Surowiecki warns that bloggers referencing memes cited by other bloggers could result in an "ants following ants to their death" scenario.  Good heads up.  So, stopping linking to anything Doc, Scoble or Hugh have to say about anything.

Next up, the highly fetching and delightfully quirky Olivia Judson, aka, Dr. Tatiana.  Ah, sex among animals…how we love it so!  Her talk was filled with enough doubles and glances to keep even the middle-aged TEDsters squirming in their seats, until she delivered lines like, "sex is information exchange."  Ugh, what a let down!

Ah, but fear not, the intrepid John Clarke next strode the boards.  And here we heard a man not afraid to show and tell, a man willing to reveal ancient images of depravity, a man bold enough to utter phrases like, "Pompeiian whorehouse," "boy lover," and "cunnilingus as penetration."  Restlessness was felt in the house, for sure.

But, Susan Casey quickly put us back on track with a three-minute TEDster presentation of images of great white sharks, their teeth, and women putting their heads in shark mouths in bars. 

Which might have been difficult to follow for someone of lesser talent than Carmen Agradeedy.  A Cuban-born Georgian, Carmen told a delightful tale of her mother’s idiosyncracies foreshadowingly entitled, "You’re Gonna Miss Me."  Nice story, slightly hammy.

Which sent us off to the Aquarium after a full Day One of the annual TED Marathon.

I realize I’ve neglected our wonderful musical mind-cleansers, led by Thomas Dolby.  His "sonification" demonstration was intriguing, with the promise of more to come.  Later, the haunting Camille O’Sullivan (always a sucker for the Irish girls, I) previewed her cabaret stylings, as they’re often termed, with steamy panache.  More from her, and her compatriot magician Keith Barry, later this evening.