“Wisdom of Crowds” microconference at Yahoo on Wednesday 12/13/06
Posted on December 10, 2006
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And you’re invited.
The TechDev Group is hosting our first ever “confab” (microconference) - details at http://confab.yahoo.com.
"Prediction Markets: Tapping the Wisdom of Crowds"
Wed Dec 13, 5:30-8:00pm
Yahoo! Headquarters, Building C, Classroom 5
Join us for a public “how to” session on prediction markets** moderated by James Surowiecki, New Yorker columnist and best-selling author of The Wisdom of Crowds. Speakers from Google, HP, Microsoft, and Yahoo! will describe how they are using prediction markets to aid corporate forecasting and decision making. Other speakers include the developer of Zocalo, an open source prediction market platform; the co-founder of InklingMarkets.com, a Paul Graham yCombinator startup; and Robin Hanson, the visionary economist and inventor whose pioneering work paved the way. The event is open to the public and will emphasize practical lessons and hands-on advice. After brief presentations from each speaker, Surowiecki will open up the session for discussion with the audience.
** A prediction market is like a stock market for ideas or information. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prediction_market
The market rewards good information whether it comes from elites or the masses. Prediction markets have built a track record of besting pundits and pollsters when it comes to predicting everything from political elections to quarterly sales figures.
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For those who missed it, this was a fascinating event, that showed in multiple ways how to a bunch of people who know something about a phenomenon or event actually know more when you put their brains together. Another way of tapping into human brain power, which Brad might be interested in, is through a free software tool offered by a Palo Alto company that we wrote about yesterday….the tool is called Illumio and the story is here http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/16272288.htm. The tool is an effort to preserve privacy while at the same time encouraging people to share what they know.