The concept of "wisdom of the crowds" has been studied for some time in sociology, allowing us to draw on key sources that underpin this work. To name one, it's worth looking at the insights James Surowiecki provides in his book, The Wisdom of Crowds (2007) But let’s take it step by step.
Indeed, when we talk about decentralized science, it’s natural for images of scientists, laboratories, statistics, and research to come to mind. However, limiting our view to just these aspects would unfortunately narrow our perspective. So, let’s consider what decentralization brings to science. Got it? Decentralized Science (DeSci) promotes the democratization of knowledge, meaning information becomes free from centralizing bodies and institutions. But this raises a question: how is this shared information generated, and who are the key players maintaining this system of free knowledge? The answer lies with the users of a collective network, of course.
One example of this social phenomenon is Wikipedia. Although it’s not necessarily a scientific platform, it illustrates how the collective wisdom system works, with people contributing to a vast network of freely accessible knowledge. A closer example is the use of platforms like Galaxy Zoo or Folding@home, where communities join forces to provide collective information.
On the other hand, it is necessary to delve into the weak, existing, and potential aspects of decentralized science. For example, it would be beneficial to discuss review systems and algorithms that help evaluate the consistency of contributions. However, maintaining quality in such large projects continues to be complex, as conformity can influence the results, and there is always the risk that the phenomenon of "groupthink" dominates the space, affecting the quality of the results or shared open-access data, since the information runs the risk of being diverse, different, and objective. This raises important questions about how to improve data collection methods and avoid biases in decentralized science.
Reference:
Surowiecki, J. (2007). The wisdom of crowds. Abacus.
Folding@home Distributed Computing https://foldingathome.org/
