I'm not sure if I am missing the point, but it seems to me that these tools exist and are very widely used already. In the business world sophisticated Social Media Monitoring tools are everywhere, measuring what was said by whom to whom and how that message made its way through the social media-sphere. Isn't this similar to what you are after? Tools to assess and quantify the usefulness of knowledge circulating in informal knowledge networks? That is the whole point of technorati, to identify the blogs that are 'most authoritative' based primarily but not exclusively on the number of inbound links. The idea being that if people are consistently returning somewhere for info about a subject then it is likely a high-quality source. <br>
<br>Also, I would argue that 'dialogues' are ends in and of themselves in digital - or what i call OS3 - culture. They don't need a reason to exist. They are existence itself. Just as they are in oral (OS1) culture. The subject of the conversation - useful or playful or solemn though it may be - is typically less transformative than the conversational dynamic itself, especially at the macro-social level. In other words, instead of seeking truthful answers digital culture is after trustworthy relationships. And yes this promises to change or at least challenge our definition of knowledge, but imo that is for the best.<br>
<br>John<br>--<br><a href="http://www.youareyourmedia.com">www.youareyourmedia.com</a><br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 12:00 PM, Anya Kamenetz <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:anyaanya@gmail.com">anyaanya@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">Pride of influencing a field I think can apply equally to amateurs and professionals. <br>As a mother-to-be following perhaps the deepest, most high-stakes informal learning path of my life, I've spent countless hours so far sharing knowledge and ideas with other women on online forums and email lists. Why do we spend this time answering each others' questions? What motivates a busy working woman with two children to put in her time advising a n00b? A lot of it is deeply social and intrinsic.<br>
a <br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 11:50 AM, John Bell <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:john@novomancy.org" target="_blank">john@novomancy.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
But what value would such a score represent to an amateur scholar? For professional scholars it's mostly valued due to pride of influencing the field and tenure committees. Is there another carrot that can be offered to people with deep knowledge but no interest in advancing an academic career?<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
- John<br>
</font><div><div></div><div><br>
On Sep 6, 2011, at 4:20 PM, Anya Kamenetz wrote:<br>
> So the question would be, to what extent is it feasible to represent a similar type of score, based on references to their previous statements, for amateur scholars? That would be an interesting example of an incentive that's both internal and external.<br>
> a<br>
<br>
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