Networked Expertise in the Era of Many-to-many Communication: On Wikipedia and Invention

Abstract

This essay extends the observations made in E. Johanna Hartelius’ The rhetoric of expertise about the nature of expertise in digital contexts. I argue that digital media introduce a scale of communication—many-to-many—that reshapes how the invention of knowledge occurs. By examining how knowledge production on Wikipedia occurs, I illustrate how many-to-many communication introduces a new model of “participatory expertise.” This model of participatory expertise challenges traditional information routines by elevating procedural expertise over subject matter expertise and opening up knowledge production to the many. Additionally, by hosting multiperspectival conversations on Wikipedia, the participatory model of expertise introduces epistemic turbulence into traditionally tranquil encyclopedia culture.

Keywords:

• Many-to-many Communication
• Invention
• Expertise
• Multiperspectivalism
• Epistemic Turbulence

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Scott Church, Carly S. Woods, Johanna Hartelius, and Jim Collier for their perceptive contributions to this essay.

Notes

1. Although Wikipedia officially forbids “original research,” I employ the term “knowledge production” to refer to the social practices that go in to the crafting of each article. Wikipedia articles produce knowledge by drawing upon original and sourced research, synthesizing it, and then updating it over time. Although not based on “original research” as the academy understands the term, we ought not foreclose the possibility that these articles do in fact produce knowledge for some social actors.

2. In contrast to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which makes judgments of legitimacy and triviality based on perceived importance, Wikipedia adjudicates these distinctions based on received attention. Articles must meet Wikipedia’s notability standard, which is “an attempt to assess whether the topic has received ‘attention from the world at large’” through secondary sources (Wikipedia n.d. a). While articles can be made on virtually any topic, there is an ongoing process to delete or merge entries that in some way fail Wikipedia’s notability criterion (Wikipedia n.d. d).