I have to admit being completely and utterly fascinated by Hunch.

As someone who:

• Cannot make even the simplest decisions without agonising endlessly before seeking the advice of others and
• Is intellectually obsessed with the ideas and principles underpinning the notion of collective action, participate democracy and all things ‘Wisdom of Crowds’ related

that’s probably no surprise. This was made for me.

Initially I wasn’t entirely convinced but the more I visit and read about it (and how it can be used) the more impressed and excited I am about it’s potential: TripAdvisor, Wikipedia, Facebook and a staggering resource to support the most wide ranging of public research/social trend analysis (some of the outputs from its blog postings on user trends are wonderful)…potentially rolled into one and that’s just for starters.

But what I am most interested in is if it can prove that the collective public wisdom can indeed provide the most appropriate answers to questions which are something other than ‘Yes/No’, ‘Choose from this list’, ‘How many’ questions. Much of the early trials with participative democracy which have been most easily/eagerly embraced have been focused on areas where it has been possible to limit the number of choices or required inputs from the public so that scores/responses can be most easily aggregated. 

For many of the questions I’ve started to see posted on Hunch the answers are going to be grey rather than black or white – they call for an aggregation of subtle opinion and while I’m happy to take advice on the best hotel to stay in when I visit City X I’m still not sure that I’m ready to take advice on ‘whether I am in the right relationship’ from the faceless masses. And nor, I am certain, is my wife!

Try it. I have a hunch you’ll find it as interesting as I did. Really keen to see where it goes.