Motivation, cyberworlds and collective intelligence in design

Collaborative design is characterised by small-scale, carefully structured, professional design teams. The increasing popularity of social computing and mass communication supported by cyberworlds suggests there is now also a strong possibility of design through mass participation, beyond small-scale, collaborative design scenarios. However to achieve collective intelligence in design, there is a need to motivate large groups of users to contribute constructively to design tasks. This paper studies different types of cyberworlds to classify the motivation profiles of their user bases. We compare these motivation profiles to those required for the emergence of collective intelligence and develop a list of technological requirements for cyberworlds to support collective intelligence and design.