We Are Becoming The Collective

Waze - Free GPS Navigation with Turn-by-Turn

It just occurred to me that we are becoming "The Collective", like the Borg from Star Trek… and I think it's pretty freakin' cool! Thankfully, so far, most people are not trying to assimilate everyone to a single point-of-view or way of thinking.

Just think about social networking (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc), and more recently anonymous social traffic sourcing... In apps like Waze, and the yet to release Apple Maps application that was announced at WWDC 2012. We benefit from others simply running the application and that application reporting back statistics such as average speed compared to the posted speed limit. Waze allows users to report incidents such as accidents, police staked out, vehicles on the side of the road, etc. As I drive with Waze open, whether I enter in a destination or not, it can alert me to problems along my current route. If I do plug in a destination it will look for the fastest route with the least number of incidents.
Just the other day I was headed to a professional soccer game at PPL Park in Chester, PA. I already knew how to get there, but it took me through an area that is always congested by a traffic light that can back up traffic for nearly 5 miles at times. Waze routed me off that road and dropped me back on it right at the light where it frees up. While it added more distance to the trip, I was never once stuck in traffic and was able to see the long line I would have sat in when I came back to the main road. That's just one instance where it felt like "The Collective" made me more intelligent.

For news and information based situations, I am able to follow people that I know have similar tastes as me and that I trust their opinion and can be directed to articles that they already read through and "liked" or shared or favorite'ed, etc. I do the same if I am reading through articles/sites. Through this you can be directed to topics that would interest you without having to wade through thousands of stories that may not be of much interest to you. It also speeds those items reaching the right people.


I like where things are headed and can't wait to see what's next! Hopefully I can add something to this movement.