Blog 1: Wisdom of Crowds

The major idea behind the wisdom of crowds is that a group of diverse people will come up with a better solution to a problem than an expert would. I find that crowd sourcing can be effective in many cases. The sense of anonymously posting one's ideas and thoughts is in large thanks to the Internet. People who are giving their thoughts about a product really have no reason to lie. If they are willing to take the time to post their thoughts, it may help someone else in determining whether or not to purchase an item.

I have used crowd-sourcing sites and find them to be effective. I constantly look at people's reviews especially on eBay. If someone continues to get bad reviews, it will most likely lead me into not purchasing what he or she is selling (vise versa with a clean record). Buying products online can be easy and effective as well as dangerous. The only problem with the Internet is you can never be too sure who is trying to scam you.

I would rather take advice from a crowd over a columnist. This way, you can see multiple perspectives on a topic opposed to a single columnist's. It also allows one to have his or her own views on the topic instead of possibly being influenced by one person.