To achieve this, a system (involving people and machines) should be constructed so that it can ultimately, in some relevant ways, become ‘smarter’ than any of its individual (human) participants

It should be able to address problems in ways and to extents that go significantly beyond the capabilities of its individual participants to address those same problems.

It can achieve this by successfully managing the efforts of its participants such that they are able to make their best contribution: it should then coordinate the participants’ contributions in such a way that they productively interact and use the resulting feedback to amplify and optimise one another as effectively as possible.

It should successfully manage the motivation and attention of its participants, such that they are able and willing to commit their best, most productive efforts over the longest practical time.

It should provide effective provide tools and interfaces to enable participants to maximise their ability to learn, develop, improve and deploy relevant problem solving capabilities.

It should, through sensitivity to user induction requirements (e.g., training and mentoring) accommodate the widest possible range of participant capabilities.

It should offer the widest possible diversity of ‘access platforms’.

The further it ‘reaches into the real world’ (rather than being restricted by imposing constraints upon participants and their means of access) the more ’embodied’ and responsive it can potentially become.

None of the above are ideas for which I can reasonably claim any credit

I have tried to paraphrase the words of James Paul Gee, who although he uses the same sort of language (but he expresses things far more eloquently) he uses it to describe the design of games.

My own contribution is merely to leave out the term ‘games’, so that anyone outside the games and gamification industry might just possibly take his ideas (which are much more numerous in the talk than the ones I have identified above) as seriously as I believe they deserve to be taken.

Followers of the iij on Twitter will already know that I believe this talk video to be the best I have ever seen.