The Wisdom of Crowds. Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion points to James Surowiecki's new book, The Wisdom of Crowds:
The book's premise is that “large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant—better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future.”
Though not mentioned on the book's Web site, weblogs, wikis and RSS – perhaps more than any other tool – play a big role in enabling crowds to form and share opinions. This is why they will become a critical part of every PR campaign.
For more on the book, check out Surowiecki's essay in this month's Wired, a published excerpt and this author Q&A.
Also note a clever jellybean contest designed to prove that collective intelligence is greater than the individual intelligence.