Why Make Room for Experts in Web 2.0

November 4, 2006 Sorin Adam Matei

Larry Sanger defines a new paradigm for Web 2.0.

Why Make Room for Experts in Web 2.0
There’s a bit of conventional wisdom about Web 2.0 that is wrong. According to this conventional wisdom, Web 2.0 involves bringing the power of publishing to the masses. It’s all about harnessing the “wisdom of crowds” and not the wisdom of experts. So, a project that gives experts a special role couldn’t be a Web 2.0 project–even if the expert’s role were part of an online, open, dynamic, collaborative community.

This conventional wisdom is wrong. Experts can have a special and positive role in Web 2.0 projects, or so I’ll argue. As we’ll see, it’s quite understandable why so many people dislike the idea of special experts in open, online collaboration. But, as it turns out, there is no good reason that Web 2.0 projects cannot make room for experts.

Sorin Adam Matei

Assistant Vice President for Partnerships in Strategic Defense Innnovation and Professor of Communication at Purdue University, Director of the FORCES initiative leads research teams that study the relationship between technological and social systems using big data, simulation, and mapping approaches. He published papers and articles in Journal of Communication, Communication Research, Information Society, National Interest, and Foreign Policy. He is the author or co-editor of several books. The most recent is Structural differentation in social media. He also co-edited Ethical Reasoning in Big Data,Transparency in social media and Roles, Trust, and Reputation in Social Media Knowledge Markets: Theory and Methods (Computational Social Sciences) , all three the product of the NSF funded KredibleNet project. Dr. Matei's teaching portfolio includes technology and strategy, online interaction, and digital media analytics classes. A former BBC World Service journalist, his contributions have been published in Esquire and several leading Romanian newspapers. In Romania, he is known for his books Boierii Mintii (The Mind Boyars), Idolii forului (Idols of the forum), and Idei de schimb (Spare ideas).

Sorin Adam Matei

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