What Makes Crowds Clever?

Recent online crowdsourcing efforts have yielded highly productive and intelligent results, prompting the question of what makes crowds successful. Research conducted by the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence identified three key factors that contribute to intelligent crowds: social perceptiveness of group members, evenness of conversational turn-taking, and the percentage of women participating. Successful crowds demonstrated these characteristics, with facilitators ensuring that all community members had a voice and that conversations were inclusive and balanced.