I’d recommend using PSi because we scale sense making through small group sense making. We do things slightly differently because we use small voice chats to get people to evaluate a situation or a challenge together. It’s quicker and you get nuanced insight compared to having to read lots of threads. We also designed PSi in a way that encourages people to be accepting of a different approach or perspective on a topic to avoid herding.
PSi is based research in Collective Intelligence, as well as my practice as a Group Facilitator. I’ve worked in co-production of services and systems convening for the UK public sector (like local government and public hospitals) and it’s so important to have a supportive, facilitated environment for sense making otherwise people are immediately put off and won’t re-engage. Essentially we had to work hard to keep the sense making on PSi meaningful and reduce the impact of bias…but also make it a participatory experience that is friendly on peoples time and not a huge cognitive load. This is what’s the most important about scaling sense making. Scaling leads to noise, cognitive overload and potentially herding or polarisation of opinion. Also an under appreciated challenge of scaling sense making is…silence. Often, how people express their opinion on something can get super diluted when they are asked to consider it as part of a big collective exercise. The weird apathy that comes with scaling sense making kills collective sense making, it’s weird to comprehend when the other consequences are herding or group think but in my experience it is the risk that is most likely. I’d recommend trying PSi because we avoid this using small groups.
PSi is based on everything people included here, building on the great work from Polis, Ostrom’s managing the commons etc because we research and practice this work (I’m studying for an MPH with a focus on participatory approaches to public health). It would be great to get peoples feedback so please reach out if you are interested! What have we missed? Where are there cool opportunities to test it out?