Interesting article on the effects of online networks and the Internet on our perception and use of experts.
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The basic idea has been around for a long time — at least since Prince and Gordon’s development of Synectics in the ’60’s. The viral component enabled by the presence of the Internet-based social networks, though, does make it a more useful tool. However, it doesn’t suggest that the expert model should be abandoned, but rather changed. The new role of the expert would be to watch for misinterpretations and misrepresentations of knowledge supplied by hedgehogs who do not have a truly comprehensive grasp of the subject matter — in short, to insure that it is knowledge, rather than ignorance, that is shared. Sometimes, after all, a little knowledge really is a dangerous thing.
Good points and analysis. From an anthropological perspective, the realm of expertise is shifting from the individual to a community level, however now this is taking place in the “cloud” of the Internet. In many ways this represents a reversion back to previous pre-urbanized forms of knowledge sharing however one based on the continued existence of an electronic communications system.