Some of these questions people could just type into Google. But the answers are more meaningful when they come from a trusted circle. And many inquiries aren’t about information: they are about sharing resources. When there is underlying trust, people become willing to offer up information that’s valuable, relational and risky: for example introductions to people in their network or honest reflections on a challenge.

Fabian Pfortmüller • Communities = human search engines?

Saved by sari

I sometimes think about communities as human search engines. Groups with trusted relationships and a healthy sense of belonging are a great way for people to answer questions in their lives. And in fact, that’s what many people use communities for. We regularly work with communities of change-makers and most activities in the online forums are sear... See more

Fabian Pfortmüller • Communities = human search engines?

Communities = human search engines?

Fabian Pfortmüller medium.com

When hierarchy and status are removed via anonymity, we’re at peace knowing the recommender has nothing to gain. As a result, participation is perceived as low-stakes, unbiased and selfless. There’s no ulterior motive. They have nothing to gain. And they answer honestly because when it’s their turn to ask for advice, they want an honest answer too.... See more

Matt Klein • Distributed Trust: The Future of Crowds & Honesty

These combinations of answers and questions can then be curated through a mix of AI and human input—experimenting with different types of searches and then refining the answers that come back, rather than relying only on a single dimension for ranking results. Thus, alongside offering answers to ‘frequently asked questions’, ‘frequently needed ques

Geoff Mulgan • Another World Is Possible: How to Reignite Social and Political Imagination

The result of this are very real network effects: as engagement grows, the community gets smarter, faster to respond, more globally available, and generates more value.

Jeffrey Bussgang • When Community Becomes Your Competitive Advantage

Most people use the internet to find something that can help them. A minority of people aim to supply that demand. Ask yourself, ‘What do you know and how can it help people?’

Daniel Vassallo • Daniel Vassallo on Applied Antifragility – Visión Periférica Podcast • Podcast Notes

For most queries, Google search is pretty underwhelming these days. Google is great at answering questions with an objective answer, like “# of billionaires in the world” or “What is the population of Iceland”. It’s pretty bad at answering questions that require judgment and context like “What do NFT collectors think about NFTs?”.

The evidence is ev... See more

Sari Azout • Re-Organizing the World’s Information: Why We Need More Boutique… — Mirror

When I asked people why they share ideas with their friends, they consistently told me that they wanted to build a reputation as a thought leader. This would ensure that people would share valuable scarce information reciprocally with them. It’s not about altruism, then; it’s about reciprocity.