We love to contribute to the hivemind. We are passionate about subjects that relate to us. But let’s face it, not all platforms are equally suitable for sharing news and knowledge. Reddit for instance, proves we are willing to contribute, but fails when we want to put the pieces together. Multiple separate posts and discussions arise and no manual or (semi)-automated tooling exists to make sense out of the massive input. (hence, the existence of megathreads)

Collaboration 2.0

User generated content is active. Websites and services such as Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, Wikitribune and Wikipedia allow for a broad spectrum of user inputs, potentially moldable into semantically correct and sensible articles. However, it has proven to be a huge challenge to actually stitch together these inputs. Parallel collaboration is prone to errors. Different inputs can conflict, erase or duplicate content.

The Wisdom of Crowds

Twitter and Facebook show that people do go through great lengths to voice themselves. Sadly, a single discussion or sensible exchange of knowledge is hard to obtain. However, crowds can generate better and more accurate content than a single ‘expert’ can do on its own. Just as Wikipedia is a better encyclopedia than its renowned competitors, together, we can potentially create higher quality content than the Reuters and Bloombergs out there can on their own. Add to that the often isolated and one-sided nature of professional journalism, and it is clear that classic editorialism leaves the potential of user input untapped, ignoring the opportunities of collaboration with ‘citizen’ or peer journalists.

Discussions and collaboration that exist on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook do not relieve its users from the dreaded bubble (echo chambers). Though, everyone should be able to participate in the global discussion without bias or influence. In order to achieve that, nwzer builds tools that enable deep collaboration, leveraging the ‘wisdom of crowds’. By doing that, nwzer challenges the existing traditional media.

It’s very clear that social media and user-generated content is not going away. nwzer believes that making use of the potential of the crowds’ willingness to collaborate, the way we consume and experience news, will forever change. Ignoring this is ignoring the future.