We can define collective intelligence as it is a shared group intelligence gathering and sharing their knowledge, skills, data for addressing an issue or solving the problem(1). It is a consensus decision making, where the arguments and the comments from one person (source) are complemented by the other person (source) and the final results are emerging from the collective effort and competition(2).

It is also believed that collective intelligence is collaborative work and the cumulative results of all the individual intelligence simply cannot be achieved at the individual level(2).

Collective intelligence is not a new concept, however, the emergence of new technologies and the internet has the ability to connect more and more people in real-time, which has provided a better opportunity to use collective intelligence in optimum and innovative ways(1).

Examples can include development of the platform like Google and Wikipedia. Online encyclopedia Wikipedia is considered one of the best examples of collective intelligence. Anyone can create a new page of information or easily add information to an existing page. theses web pages also hyperlink to other areas of the website that are relevant to the topic(3,4).

The following video provides some more information about collective intelligence simply with some day-to-day life examples (5) - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7-CEDyoibQ 

Principles of collective intelligence:

As of now, we know that collective intelligence is the framework generated by the individuals working towards the common problem/issue. The group members collaborate and develop the framework for the query to achieve the goal. In this sense, there are four principles on which collective intelligence is built upon (3) –

Principles of collective intelligence

Openness–participants come to the group work with an open mindset that this is group work where we are providing our inputs.

Peering–working towards the collective intelligence is peer contributions and review

Sharing-Sharing the ideas and knowledge so it clarifies the need for intellectual property to be shared with other group members.

Globalization - New technologies allow communication across the entire network of collaborators and to engage everyone. Which is essential to provide individual inputs to the group.

Why should we use collective intelligence?

Collective intelligence strongly contributes to the shift of knowledge and power from the individual to the group intelligence. It improves creativity, creates new ideas and options that are more innovative and successful.(6) It is also beloved that the collaboration with diverse people improves the group intelligence.

In higher education, we can use collaborative intelligence for both instructors and students to create educational materials. The individual intelligence of instructors, teaching assistants, and students can be used for creating instructional materials, instructional methods, and tools that can be published as subject area knowledge. this benefits to improve the educational standards and curricula, assessment materials, and student performance assessment and for the evaluation of educational materials (2).

Another example of the contribution of collective intelligence is scientific communication. Scientific communication is developed on the discussion forum for the research community, which plays a crucial role in generating knowledge and consequently providing progress to society (3).

Considering the aforementioned examples, we can say that collective intelligence currently taking momentum. The applications of internet-based technologies opening the new horizon for the development and implementation of the collaboration between individuals., which opens the new idea for implementing collective intelligence (6).

Critic:

Besides the great outcome of collective intelligence, critic pointed out that the process of collective intelligence is been heavily influenced by team composition and team structure. While working in a group, the achievement of the individual task strongly depends on the relevant tasks, It is also been found that (under the experimental conditions) that the tasks requiring a high degree of communication and cooperation are the most influenced by the team member with the lowest cognitive ability (5). 

If we see the entire concept from the human and emotional point of view, the results of collective intelligence do not show any influence on group satisfaction, cohesiveness or motivation. That is considered the most important factor for the sustainability of the process (6). 

Reference:

1. Glenn, Jerome. (2015). Collective Intelligence Systems. 10.1007/978-3-319-04033-2_7-1.
2. Grimon, Francisca & Meza, Jaime & Vaca-Cardenas, Mónica & Monguet, Josep. (2017). Research and trends in the studies of Collective Intelligence from 2012 to 2015. EAI Endorsed Transactions on e-Learning. 4. 152905. 10.4108/eai.26-7-2017.152905.
3. http://meetingsift.com/four-principles-of-collective-intelligence/
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7-CEDyoibQ
5. https://www.clearpeople.com/blog/what-is-collective-intelligence-workplace
6. Lévy, Pierre & Farley, Art & Lollini, Massimo. (2019). Collective Intelligence, the Future of Internet and the IEML: Interview to Pierre Lévy by Art Farley and Massimo Lollini. Humanist Studies & the Digital Age. 6. 5-31. 10.5399/uo/hsda.6.1.2.