Non-expertise
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008Via Powell’s Books, an interesting review of Nicholson Baker’s Human Smoke by Anne Applebaum of the Washington Post.
She discusses the emergence of the “non-expert” due, largely, to the popularity of the blogosphere. I’m actually entirely with her until her review somehow morphs into a rant against Wikipedia towards the end. For all the problems inherent with a platform where literally anybody and everybody can contribute and edit, continually poking at the same holes in it’s armor over and over again seems futile and ultimately misses the point. It’s true that Wikipedia has proven to be an enabler to lazy academics, conspiracy theorists and rampant bias, but I don’t think these things outweigh what a facilitator of knowledge and learning it has become as well. For all the ways it imitates established academic resources poorly, it does things they simply cannot, and I think that needs to be the focus.
I’m going to collect my thoughts on this and write a post about the uniqueness of Wikipedia soon.