Where many people move together as one unit, to do something that no single one can do alone. Each individual contributes something to the overall endeavor, often something unique.  When bees wish to establish a new colony, they do so in a swarm.

The key to swarming is the reliance on a multitude of diverse actors having input, with each of those actors motivated to contribute to the goal or the project. Each member is fully engaged and they all have skin in the game – think of crowd sourcing.

Swarming allows groups of animals to accomplish tasks they can’t do alone.

Swarm intelligence is about collective wisdom applied to a shared goal, where the interaction is the key.

National Geographic talks about the genius of swarms thus:

A single ant or bee isn’t smart, but their colonies are. The study of swarm intelligence is providing insights that can help humans manage complex systems.