Comments for Experts are social facts

Comment from Patrick on 2006-09-21

2006-09-21T09:35:05Z

Interesting post, Jack... I see some connections with Charles Tilly's distinction between technical accounts and codes - he focuses on the contents of what is shared, and essentially what experts communicate, where your post focuses on the people that communicate these things.
http://www.greenchameleon.com/gc/blog_detail/how_stories_interact_with_infrastructure/

Comment from bob handwerk on 2006-09-22

2006-09-22T13:03:57Z

Perhaps my observation is semantical nitpicking: but the author says that "So, an expert is defined by how the world sees her expert".
The term "sees" gives me pause... An expert is judged by their cosistent,quantifiable creditable performance in a specific realm demonstrated (usually) over a period of time.

Comment from jackvinson on 2006-09-22

2006-09-22T15:27:41Z

Thanks for the thoughts, Bob.

You are probably right. I was being rather casual in the use of language. But that was because I was trying to move away from the more formal definition that you suggest. Experts certainly must demonstrate their expertise, but I have known many technically-knowledgeable people who could not (or would not) communicate with the larger community. How are people to know she is an expert, if they don't know about her?

Comment from Duane McCollum on 2006-09-30

2006-10-01T03:04:46Z

Jack, this is a good one. I like posts that make me think about something i take for granted in a different way. Experts, finding them, relying on them, taking whatever they say or challenging them, are very important to our survival!

I work in a Big Company (over 100k employees) and there is an elaborate formal system we can use to identify 'experts' and then there's a less formal one --most of us tend to rely on the latter, a 'word of mouth' type system (especially when we're looking for an expert in a topic we're unfamiliar).

But does an expert mean i am getting the "right answer" or the one i need --especially if my selection is biased for an expert whose opinions are more like my own. In that case, i tend to reinforce my assumptions i had on the topic.