Cultivating Collective Intelligence in Online Groups

With the increasing presence of online groups in so many sectors of our lives, it becomes more and more important to understand what influences the performance of these collectives. However, historically, research to measure and thereby improve performance for online groups has produced disparate conclusions. In this chapter, we propose enhancing the performance by cultivating collective intelligence in online groups—a new way of conceptualizing and measuring collective performance. We describe recent research on collective intelligence, and develop a framework for thinking about how processes critical to collective intelligence can be enhanced in online groups through the use of collaboration tools. In conclusion, we encourage researchers to explore and fine-tune these tools as a means of continuing to enhance the collective intelligence of online groups.