eHow in Pierre Levy's Eyes (Practicum)

Pierre Levy wrote an article on the Collective Intelligence and how it is created and maintained through the internet. He stated the goal of collective intelligence as "the mutual recognition and enrichment of individuals rather than the cult of fetishized or hypostatized communities." It is through communities that knowledge is built up and expanded upon through the sharing between users. All total knowledge resides in humanity and the premise of these specialized information sites is to gather as much information using as many users as possible. eHow embraces this concept by gathering as many articles written by as many experienced authors as they can. The users are information consuming who have the ability to request or drive up the demand for certain articles on a wide variety of subjects. Pierre stresses three main aspects that tend to make up collective intelligence. These are intelligence is constantly enhanced, real-time coordination of intelligence, and the effective mobilization of skills. The first eHow is a prime example of because any time an author decides to write an article and post it he/she adds to the already large bank of knowledge. Real-time coordination does not really work for eHow because information is not updated every second it is discovered, it takes an author to find something to write about and then spend the time to write, edit and upload the article. eHow is a prime example of Pierre's final aspect, the effect mobilization of skills. This is what the website is built on, all the articles are meant to teach a wide spectrum of skills and tasks to anyone who is willing to learn them. These are usually in step-by-step form and users are allowed to share their own tips and experiences to benefit other users.