IMAGINE that you are French. You are walking along a busy pavement in Paris and another pedestrian is approaching from the opposite direction. A collision will occur unless you each move out of the other’s way. Which way do you step? The answer depends on the wisdom of the crowd.
posted by Brandon Blatcher on Dec 27, 2011 - 43 comments

Crowd Control
posted by empath on Nov 17, 2008 - 29 comments

The Promise of Prediction Markets (full text link; .pdf here). A group of distinguished economists and other scholars has published a call to exempt prediction markets (previously on MeFi: 1, 2) from American laws that restrict internet gambling. [more inside]
posted by googly on May 16, 2008 - 24 comments

Photographer and photojournalist Massimo Vitali captures large-scale crowded panoramas of people at play in shared public spaces. His biography and works discussed: 1, 2. (via mira y calla)
posted by madamjujujive on Jan 29, 2006 - 12 comments

Would you step on a teenage girl to see B5? No, not that B5, this one ( warning: you'll be greeted by the compelling sounds of a Radio Disney ad).

For many of us of a certain age, The Who in Cincinnati was the defining moment in uncontrolled concert crowds. Those a little younger may only know of this tragedy.

Don't bother creating a helpful site to log crowd complaints--these guys have already done it (complete with cartoonish graphics). If you like your crowd control info framed, try this site.
posted by Kibbutz on Nov 13, 2005 - 29 comments

Consensus View
New Yorker columnist James Surowiecki's book The Wisdom of Crowds "explores a deceptively simple idea that has profound implications: 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." Now this idea has been put into practice with Consensus View, a site where you can enter your predictions on stocks, commodities, and currencies, and view the group consensus. (from wsj.com)
posted by reverendX on Sep 18, 2005 - 46 comments

Marketocracy is a free, handy site where you can practice building your own stock portfolio.
MOFQX is a moderately successful mutual fund driven entirely by the top 100 performers out of some 37,000 Marketocracy members. With market-beating returns and an innovative method, some think that the fund might be a great idea--perhaps the wisdom of crowds made manifest--but others are less bullish.
posted by allan on Jul 26, 2005 - 17 comments

Peekskill, 1949. "The mob was rolling toward us for the second attack. This was, in a way, the worst of that night. For one thing, it was still daylight; later, when night fell, our own sense of organization helped us much more, but this was daylight and they poured down the road and into us, swinging broken fenceposts, billies, bottles, and wielding knives..." Howard Fast's account of a terrifying evening that was supposed to be an outdoor concert near Peekskill, NY. You can think about the political implications ("...it illustrates how easily, when terror is unleashed in a nation, it can take hold, and how thin the line is that separates constitutional government from tyranny and dictatorship...") or just enjoy the riveting tale. (Related song and picture here.)
posted by languagehat on Dec 1, 2003 - 22 comments

Large-scale, Global Anti-capitalism Protests Putting Smaller, Local, Anti-capitalism Protests Out Of Business: "Kyle Redmond, spokesperson for WorldProtest, which has thousands of members in 20 countries and co-ordinates protests all over the world, defended his organisation's approach: 'We give anarchists what they want. It's a supply and demand situation. We offer a basic menu of building defacement, vandalism of a McDonalds outlet and general looting, ending with a confrontation with the local police. All our research shows that this is what the average anarchist on the street wants'." Satire at its finest...
posted by frednorman on May 2, 2001 - 4 comments

Just two months after the Sydney teenager Jessica Michalik was crushed to death in the mosh pit at a Limp Bizkit concert, the American rock/rap band is promoting an Internet game in which concert-goers try to avoid a violent death. More
posted by murray_kester on Mar 31, 2001 - 6 comments

Eat your heart out, Burning Man... Allahabad may become the world's largest city for the next six weeks. It's expected that at least 20 million people will attend the Kumbh, but numbers could rise to 70 million. Wow.
posted by holgate on Jan 7, 2001 - 10 comments