The Collective Intelligence Institute (ICO) is an initiative of researchers, businesspeople, and persons interested in this theme in order to disseminate this concept throughout Brazilian society.

The project originated in a course on Collective Intelligence taught at the Master on Business and Knowledge Management – MBA program of the Business Intelligence Reference Center ( CRIE)/ Coordinating Board of Postgraduate Programs in Engineering (COPPE)/ Rio de Janeiro Federal University (UFRJ). This course evolved into a research program that unfolded through the creation of ICO.

The project includes a number of activities towards that goal:

• Software – development, follow-up, and homologation of the ICOX tool – free software to manage Collective Intelligence. Its version 1.0 Beta Light is available for download . Over 100 institutions – public and private, civil society, government, and Third Sector – already downloaded this software . Currently, we are raising funds to develop new tools that will be integrated into the existing ones.

• Course – Networked Knowledge - How to implement collective intelligence projects , geared to train information, communication, and technology professionals in administrating projects in this area. We have already taught the first in-class group in October, and other groups are being organized in Rio de Janeiro and in other cities – including distance-education classes .

• Talks – We have given talks on Collective Intelligence, introducing this concept, at institutions in several sectors of society.

• Publications – Marcos Cavalcanti and Carlos Nepomuceno launched the book entitled O Conhecimento em Rede – Como implantar projetos de Inteligência Coletiva (Networked Knowledge - How to implement collective intelligence projects), released by the Campus Publishing House on November 13, 2006.


What is ICOX?

It is free software to manage networked communities. It is geared to help information, communication, education, technology, and knowledge professionals in implementing projects to develop knowledge in networks at public and private institutions.

This product is coordinated by the Collective Intelligence Institute (ICO), developed by Pontonet Internet Consulting, with funding from the Rio de Janeiro State Carlos Chagas Filho Research Support Foundation (FAPERJ) and the Studies and Projects Financing Agency (FINEP), through the Rio Innovation Program.

It is also supported by Infoglobo and SOCID.

Our objective is to make available in Brazil an open and free system for managing networked communities.

Enhancement brought about by networked knowledge will make it possible to have a new type of interaction among users, generating new cultural, social , political, and economic initiatives that will enable in the short-, medium-, and long-term the economic growth of organizations, cities, states, and the country.

ICOX is a multiplatform software , which means that it will run in any environment: Linux, UNIX, Windows, Mac or FreeBSD. Source code is available on the Internet and can be copied and freely installed on any server configured to jointly run Apache /MySQL/PHP components.

The program is accessible to blind and visually-impaired people, having the Brazil Accessibility Seal. It can also be operated via mobile equipment.


Version 1.0 Light (already available)

User module: each user has his/her space for expression (Blog), in which one can post written materials in a customized way, allowing comments or not, post a resumé, or indications of future interests;

Community module: each group has his/her space for expression (Community), in which one can exchange messages and store them for later retrieval;

Area and subarea module: users can easily access both the blogs and communities according to a given subject of their interest;

Administration module: administration of users and communities.

All ICOX listings quickly show information according to date or community interest.


Version 1.0 (will be available by late 2006 – funding already raised)

User module:
What’s new: polls, tool to share photos, texts, and files.

Community module:
What’s new: discussion lists, community chat , community poll, community photoblog, community linkblog, community fileblog, and Wikiglossary.

Improvements of the previous version, based on use.


What is the course?

The objective is to enable participants (communication, knowledge, education, information, and technology professionals) to understand the new paradigms introduced by the network environment and build their capacities to stimulate networked community projects to generate collective intelligence, with greater chances of success.

Summary: The change in the communication paradigm – historical background , from cave drawings to the Internet . The Internet as communication of “many to many”. Importance of networked communities for this new type of communication and knowledge creation – Collective Intelligence. Relevance of Collective Intelligence for innovation and economic growth for persons, business, and countries. Knowledge as the key factor for the future. Web 2.0 – what is it and how to implement projects in this new stage of the Net? The new role played by communication, knowledge, education, information, and technology professionals in this new environment. Project implementation methodology: Where to begin? By whom? In what way? With what groups? In what sectors? ICOX as a tool to generate Collective Intelligence.

Course load: 16 hours (during two Saturdays, 8 hours each).

Classes are offered in two formats: in-class and distance-education groups.

The course is taught by MARCOS CAVALCANTI and CARLOS NEPOMUCENO.

MARCOS CAVALCANTI is General and Academic Coordinator of CRIE (UFRJ/COPPE). He has been distinguished by his research work in the field of knowledge management.

Doctorate in Computer Science from the University of Paris XI , graduated in Mathematics at the UFRJ, adjunct professor in the COPPE/UFRJ Production Engineering Program. He is also the editor of the magazine Inteligência Empresarial (Business Intelligence).

Author of Gestão de Empresas na Sociedade do Conhecimento (Business Management in the Knowledge Society), one of the best-sellers in the area of knowledge management (over 20,000 copies sold), he coordinates the Master’s program on Business and Knowledge Management, the MBA in Knowledge Management of COPPE/UFRJ.

In June 2006 Cavalcanti was elected to the Board of the New Paris Club, an international organization that pulls together the world’s most noted researchers in the field of Knowledge Society.

CARLOS NEPOMUCENO has 11 years of experience and over 200 projects involving websites and systems developed for the Internet . A journalist and consultant, he founded and coordinates Pontonet (www.pontonet.com.br) – the country’s first Internet consulting firm.

Graduated in Journalism by PUC-RJ, he is a doctoral student in Information Science at the Rio de Janeiro Federal University , and has specialization in Information in the Cyberspace at the Internet Society, in Honolulu , Hawaii , US .

Coordinator of Brazil ’s first Internet Service Provider, he was responsible for the prototype of the first Brazilian e-commerce software : Booknet. He has also been distinguished by his strategic support to initiatives by businesses, municipal government organs, and NGOs.

For almost a decade, he has been publishing in newspapers and on the Internet articles on the digital world. These articles have been freely reproduced in over 70 websites and been sent to over 10,000 subscribers.

Technology consultant for Sebrae, IBAM, and Petrobras (where he still works), with projects related to implementing new technologies and virtual communities. Since 2004, he has taught a course on Collective Intelligence of the MBA program on Knowledge Management of CRIE/UFRJ/COPPE – where he coordinates research on this new area of knowledge.

Currently, he coordinates the ICOX development project. ICOX is Brazil ’s first software to manage Collective Intelligence.


What is the book?

Carlos Nepoumuceno and Marcos Cavalcanti, professionals and researchers who have been working with the issue of the Internet and knowledge for over 15 years, present a summary of their experiences, starting from two essential questions: What the Internet adds, in terms of change, to human knowledge and how this networked knowledge changes? How institutions should prepare for this outcome?

pontonet@pontonet.com.br