1. Crowd- resources needed to do the activity are spread widely and/or not known in advance. It is also crucial that the main activity can be broken down in to smaller tasks 
2. Hierarchy- is used when the crowd conditions are not met. Though many systems use a mix of the two. Having the crowd create and a small group decide on final iteams.

Who: When to Use Crowd and Hierarchy Gene

There are many reasons as to which to use or a combination of them. Though the two most relevant are:

1. The Love and Glory gene being more emphasized can sometimes lead to a reduction in cost.
2. The Mony and Glory Gene can sometimes lead to a way of influencing the group's speed and direction.
 

Why: When to Use the Money, Love and Glory Gene

1. Collection- The conditions previously stated in the crowd node. The activity can be divided into small pieces that can be done independently of each other. 
2. Contest- The same conditions for collection gene though with only the want for a few solutions.
3. Collaboration- The activity can't be divided into small independently done pieces and you can manage the dependencies among said pieces
 

How- Create: When to Use Collection, Contest, and Collaboration

1.  Group Decisions- Conditions for crowd gene and when everyone in the group needs to follow the same decision.
2. Voting- When the crowd must be committed to the same decision.
3. Averaging- Conditions for voting variant and decisions are based on estimating a number.  The crowd must also have no systematic bias about the number.
4. Consensus- Conditions for voting and there is a reasonable amount of time permited to reach a consensus.
5. Prediction Market- Estimating a number is required and the crowd has some knowledge about the number that has been already estimated. The system wants/needs updated estimates and individuals varry on the amount of information they have or can obtain. 

How-Decide: When to Use The Group Decision Gene and Its Varients

1. Individual Decisions- The conditions for Crowd gene and the ability for the members to make their own decisions.
2. Market- When money is needed to motivate individuals to do the actitivy or provide effort and other resources. 
3. Social Network- When non-monetary motivations work just as well to get individuals to do the tasks and provide help. The opinion of others is used by individuals when making their decisions.  

How-Decide: When to Use the Individual Decisions Gene and It's Variants 

Each gene and its variants have specific outcomes/goals and thus are best used in certain combinations and types of systems.  

Albion College

Despite the power collective intelligence holds, many businesses are not using it because they don’t understand how to do so. To shed some light on this confusion, a study at MIT’s Center for Collective Intelligence analyzed almost 250 examples of web-enabled collective intelligence, and identified building blocks to explain how these systems function. These building blocks answer the following four questions: What is the task at hand? Who is doing it? Why are they doing it? How is it being done?

Building blocks explain how to use CI in companies

Malone, Thomas W. and Laubacher, Robert and Dellarocas, Chrysanthos N., Harnessing Crowds: Mapping the Genome of Collective Intelligence (February 3, 2009). MIT Sloan Research Paper No. 4732-09, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1381502 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1381502

Harnessing Crowds: Mapping the Genome of Collective Intelligence

It is usually one (or both) of the following: create or decide. 

Creating is generating something new, like for example t-shirt designs. Deciding is evaluating and selecting the best choice among alternatives, like for example selecting among t-shirt designs.

Building block 1: What is the task at hand? 

Building block 2: Who is doing the task?

Motivators include money, love, and glory.

Love is defined as enjoyment of the activity, enjoyment of the opportunity to socialize with others via the activity, or feeling that one is contributing to a larger cause. Appealing to love and glory over money tends to reduce the costs. However, providing money and glory makes it easier to control the direction in which a crowd moves and how quickly they achieve the goal.

Building block 3: Why are people performing the task?

This building block is split into two categories based on whether one is creating or deciding.

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