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Researchers at UCLA appear to have come up with an interesting cure to the problem iPod created by turning everyone a DJ.

It’s a become a common issue at parties, the musical taste of the host is not shared by the party goers, this leads to angst and ends up with guests connecting their own iPods to try and take musical control, chaos ensues and the party rapidly turns into a disaster.

UCLA’s Smart Party uses Wi-Fi to poll the tastes of the people attending the party and creates a play list based on those tastes.



It’s an example of a solution to the emerging challenge to encourage and facilitate crowd collaboration in appropriate situations.

The party example is good because there is no often no talent gap between the host and party attendees concerning music. The iPod hasn’t put expert DJs out of business, but in situations where they aren’t around, it has made everyone believe they are one.

Smart Party facilitates democracy, it allows everyone’s tastes to be considered, but it doesn’t take it to the next level and make the experience exponentially better by for example using algorithms to recreate a brilliant DJ set out of the music that comes from the crowd.

What if the system allowed you to select a “virtual” version of your favorite DJ to play the crowd’s music in his or her style?

Could this be how Zune beats iPod?

Companies are already tapping into the wisdom of their crowds of employees and consumers hoping for gems that challenge the experts.

However, it’s one thing to facilitate and collect all the input and its quite another to make that input great.

Collection alone is not enough, there needs to be another level added to the process.

This could happen if small teams cross-collaborate to make the initial ideas better, or if real experts are brought in and thrown into the crowd to extract and facilitate.

This challenge is the same for ad agencies, as they demand creative thinking from every employee, rather than just those with the word creative in their job title.

The old-fashioned brainstorming session might not be long for this world, real collaboration requires new processes, new skills and new tools and technology.



Posted by Ed Cotton