Innovation

Move over YouTube and Flickr. Join the swarm with the city's latest wiki-like website for cultural events, PittCult.

More than just an events calendar, the site is an experiment in building digital communities. It was created by Danielle Lee, a doctoral student in Pitt's School of Information Sciences. PittCult relies on the willingness of its members to participate in the flow of digital information, highlighting events throughout the city, reviews and rendezvous plans with friends.

"The site is a kind of informational ant colony," explains Peter Brusilovsky, a Pitt professor who runs the lab where the platform was created. "As more people post events and interact, the more useful PittCult becomes and the more enticing it is to others looking to be in the cultural know."

PittCult uses "swarm intelligence "--the use of a large digital group to stay informed--to harness the collective wisdom of the society. Above all, it serves as a research platform to investigate the most useful features in the process. The findings will hopefully help us do more important things in the future like save lives, says Brusilovsky.

Users can promote or recommend events to friends through the social network as well as post comments and follow each other. "Friends can watch friends," he adds. The site is averaging 300 hits and day and has 91 members since its debut in October.

Check out PittCult.

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Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Peter Brusilovsky, University of Pittsburgh

Image of Danielle Lee courtesy of Pitt