The challenge of the Collective Intelligence

In a recent conference held in Lisbon Thomas Malone, a famous Professor from the MIT Sloan School of Management, presented an excellent vision about the role that the “collective intelligence” has in the organizations of the future. That´s a new collaborative platform between the different actors, with the strategic challenge of reinforcing the central competences of society and qualifying them as the unique ways of creation of value and modernity. Europe is facing also a unique opportunity. There is more and more a sense of “collective intelligence”  in the new time that all of us want for Europe in the future.
The challenge of “collective inteligence” demands an effective Partnership Contract between all the actors (States, Universities, Companies, Civil Society), in order to build a real Strategy of Confidence in the implementation of the different policies. The focus on Innovation and Knowledge as the drivers of creating added value with international dissemination is a unique challenge that may be the answer to a new way of interaction between those who have the responsibility of thinking and those that have the responsibility of producing goods and services.
The “collective intelligence”  demands for an active entrepreneurial culture and attitude -  “social active classes” in Europe have most of the times  an effective negative attitude towards the financial risk, the focus on innovation and the share of a culture of positive dynamic. We need Europe to have a new challenge. Europe must be able to be the real Platform of a more Entrepreneurial Society, centered in new areas of knowledge and new sectors of value. In a “Collective Intelligence” Society, the key word is Co-creation. To promote a dynamic and active creation process involving each citizen is the big challenge for the next years in Europe.
In the 2009 Year of Innovation and Creativity, a “collective intelligence” Europe must be the most complete example of positive attitude towards the future. The Talents must be the new competitive advantage of this new “collective intelligence” Europe pushed by the “enablers” of  Modernity, Added Value and Excellence. A very clear idea that suits the big challenge that our society really faces and that requires new answers for different questions. The act of global  participation in such a demanding society is an exercise of commitment between the individual creativity and the collective cooperation. This is the key for the right future for Europe.
It´ s time to believe in a new cycle for Europe. These are in fact the “drivers of change” for  Europe and civil society must be able to understand this new challenge and address effective answers to the different stakeholders of the system. The challenge of the “collective intelligence”  is in a large sense giving a new opportunity  to the reinvention of Europe. The Reinvention of Europe is the reinvention of its people and institutions. It ´s the conviction that in fact we have a future as individuals and society.

Francisco Jaime Quesado is the General Manager of the Innovation and Knowledge Society in Portugal, a public agency with the mission of coordinating the policies for Information Society and mobilizing it through dissemination, qualification and research activities. It operates within the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education