Keystone


Excerpt : The One Crucial Idea of Web 2.0


Listening to James Surowiecki’s talk on the Wisdom of Crowds (mp3) at the SXSW Conference (I’m attending vicariously), I was struck at how pervasive this idea has become in such a short period of time. And the reason, of course, is the success of Google’s Pagerank algorithm, which harnesses the wisdom of crowds to model the way we value content.

http://bokardo.com/archives/the-one-crucial-idea-of-web-20/
by Joshua Porter
March 17th, 2006


  • James Surowiecki 在SXSW大会上作了题为“大众的智慧”（The Wisdom of Crowds）的演讲。 Listening to James Surowiecki’s talk on the Wisdom of Crowds (mp3) at the SXSW Conference (I’m attending vicariously), 我对这一思想在如此短的时间内得到广泛传播而感到震惊。 I was struck at how pervasive this idea has become in such a short period of time. 究其缘由，是Google的“网页等级”（Pagerank）算法所获得的成功，推动了这一思想的传播。 And the reason, of course, is the success of Google’s Pagerank algorithm, 该算法正是利用了“大众的智慧”来评估网页的内容。 which harnesses the wisdom of crowds to model the way we value content.

    如果用一句话来高度概括什么是Web 2.0的核心思想，那就是利用网络来发掘大众的智慧。这一思想在过去只是天方夜谭，今天则变成了现实。 If there is one idea that encapsulates what Web 2.0 is about, one idea that wasn’t a factor before but is a factor now, it’s the idea of leveraging the network to uncover the Wisdom of Crowds. 先暂时忘掉Ajax，API 等等这些所谓的技术吧。 Forget Ajax, APIs, and other technologies for a second. 真正的挑战在于：收集我们能够找到的所有被数字化记录下来的行为碎片，分析其内在的联系， The big challenge is aggregating whatever tidbits of digitally-recorded behavior we can find, making some sense of it algorithmically, 并通过简单明了的界面，最终发掘出大众的智慧。 and then uncovering the wisdom of crowds through a clear and easy interface to it.

    有人认为Web 2.0的精髓在于技术，对此我不敢苟同。 Some folks like to point to technology as the heart and soul of Web 2.0. I don’t think so. Web 2.0的核心与灵魂应该是那些带动了技术和社会变革的新思想； The heart and soul of Web 2.0 is the new ideas that drive technological and social innovation, 而其核心思想，正是Surowiecki在他的著作（注：此处所指的书籍是《The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations》）中所阐明的那一条。 and the one crucial idea is the one found in Surowiecki’s seminal book. 这一思想，从此改变了人们写软件的方式。 It has forever altered the way that software is written.

    有越来越多的证据表明了这一点。 And the evidence is mounting. Richard MacManus 最近介绍过Rojo的新特性。 Today, Richard MacManus writes of the new features on Rojo, 在说明这些特性到底是什么时，Chris Alden 告诉 Richard：它们就是网页等级的翻版： and in explaining what they are Chris Alden tells Richard that they’re emulating Pagerank:

    “我们是如何决定关联度的呢？ “How do we do it? (determine relevance) 简单地说，正如Google利用链接的元数据（metadata）来分析搜索结果的关联度一样， Generally, just like Google used link metadata to determine relevance of search results, 我们也有相当数量的元数据，可以用来进行关联度分析。 there is a fair amount of metadata we can use to infer relevance, 这些元数据包括：有多少人在读你的故事、做标签、和投你一票； including how many people are reading, tagging, and voting for a story, 一篇帖子的流行性如何——从你的个人角度，你的圈子，以及所有读者的角度来说；还有就是链接数据和内容分析，等等。” how popular the feed is — both to you personally, to your contacts, and to all readers, as well as things like link data and content analysis. ” (emphasis mine)

    这一变革的最终结果产生了关联引擎（relevance engines），过滤器（filters），推荐系统（recommendation systems），Web 2.0 软件，等等，等等。 The end result is relevance engines, filters, recommendation systems, Web 2.0 software, or whatever you want to call it. 而Surowiecki则天才地把这些总结到了一起。 And Surowiecki brilliantly sums it all up.