ComputerWorld: Symbiotic Intelligence by Gary Anthes: “Johnson argues that self-organizing groups of 'average' people can solve complex problems better than experts can. Challenges today—such as managing a global economy, fighting terrorism or optimizing supply chain operations—are more complex and more distrib- uted than problems were 20 years ago, and so they are less amenable to top-down solutions by 'experts,' he says.
“In a U.S. Department of Labor survey, employees at several large companies said that 70% of the information they need to perform their jobs comes from informal sources, not from training courses, manuals or instructions from their bosses. Computer networks, acting in symbiosis with groups of people, facilitate the flow of this informal information and help create knowledge, Johnson contends.” [John Robb's Radio Weblog]