The article considers two situations where group wisdom is tapped using a simple democratic process, and shows that it works in one instance and doesn't work in the other. A more interesting question, and one that is far broader in scope, is to try to identify which community structures amplify individual wisdom and which structures diminish it. Wikipedia and Slashdot would probably be extreme examples -- the former has built something remarkable by leveraging the collective wisdom of unremarkable individuals, whereas the latter has managed to take people who are smarter than average and reduce the discourse to juvenile banter. This should be interesting to people here, since Hacker News is an experiment in this vein. But I think the issue is important enough to merit rigorous study, so that people who are building various types of social sites can start with an idea of what kind of features to put in and what to leave out.