"Reddit's Boston marathon speculation shows the limits of crowdsourcing"

[applegrove]

Reddit's Boston marathon speculation shows the limits of crowdsourcing

by Charles Arthur at the Guardian

While it's tempting for digital communities to help to solve cases like the Boston bombing, they should leave it to the experts

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/19/reddit-boston-marathon-crowdsourcing

"SNIP.................................


Hang on, what's this? You say that the men chased by Boston police were brothers with a different surname? Reddit got it wrong? But everyone knows that the internet is better at whatever it turns its hands to than traditional whatevers. Media? We've got Twitter. Law enforcement? We've got Anonymous.

The idea that Reddit and 4chan, another gigantic site, could figure out not only who of the many attendees at the Boston Marathon was a suspect, but also name them, seems to have spawned very early on out of a laudable sense of civic duty.

Unfortunately, there was only ever the tiniest chance that it would work out, and far more chance that it would go horribly wrong – as it did. Between them, the two forums wrongly identified a number of people, picking them out from photos taken on the day ("those look like black backpack straps… he seems to be straining to hold it as though it's heavy…&quot , pinning names to faces in some cases, and leaving the innocents involved fearful for their lives.

The internet breeds this sort of overconfidence because when it's done right, crowdsourcing can be so effective. Done right, it's a fantastic use of what Clay Shirky calls "cognitive surplus" – a souped-up phrase for "time when we don't have something better to do".

...............................SNIP"

[frazzled]

1. Yeah, ya think?

Crowd sourcing, in this instance (as so many others), turned out to be what is commonly known as Epic Fail.