I really like what the NYT did around Game 4 of the World Series. They made a list on Twitter comprised of sports writers and columnists – personalities that are experts in their field. Users could easily follow the game with commentary through the collective intelligence of a smart list.
Publishing ephemeral lists of specific knowledgeable people around events is a major step forward in collective networked intelligence. It is a tool that generates signal and filters out the noise of what general search results yield.
Smart Lists are the beginning of another small, yet important behavioral trait born through social media.
There are a myriad of behaviors that are emerging out of social and location based networks, some viral ones that fall under the amusing ourselves to death banner, but there are also behavioral shifts taking place that have larger impact.
Twitter Lists are one of them.
Lists create new aggregate value for social and real-time conversations by bringing clarity and focus around terms and events – more signal, less noise
When evaluating or creating a list, it is highly important to consider the following attributes of the people contributing to that list:
- Reputation
- Influence
- Intelligence
These will determine the ultimate value that list generates.
The human assembly of a good ‘smart list’ is a programming currency that matters (read: valuable skill set). The added textual extensions or utility that these smart lists bring to events, stories, ideas, will serve to be a source of new and important aggregate value over time.
