ABSTRACT
Key Themes The main idea of The Wisdom of Crowds is that the collective intelligence and decision-making power of aggregated groups of individuals can be equal to, if not greater than, experts. James Surowiecki explores this idea through multiple examples of its application in historic and recent times, including the development of the Linux* open-source programming language, the investigation of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion,* and the search for the USS Scorpion, a nuclear submarine lost in mysterious circumstances during the 1960s.* In each of these case study examples, Surowiecki highlights the unique and impressive use of crowd wisdom as critical to solving the problem.
