Comments on: A shared Subjectmatter Expert List of bloggers?

By: Advanced Technology Products Interactive » Blog Archive » Talking of expert lists.

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 14:48:22 +0000

[...] Damian and Eirepreneur were talking about an expert list of Irish bloggers. It was to be for the benefit of media who were looking for someone with knowledge of a subject. [...]

By: Evert

Evert — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 23:29:47 +0000

Well, let’s do it then!

By: RandomGrub

RandomGrub — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 23:05:13 +0000

In theory this is a great idea – widening the pool of sources used by the mainstream media has to be a good thing. I wouldn’t worry too much about “experts” who aren’t really experts or who are trying to pass themselves off as experts.

Hacks talk to dozens of “experts” each week and can usually tell pretty quickly if someone knows their stuff or not.

Endorsements might help but journalists will rely more on instinct, experience and validation through use of established contacts. Most hacks are unlikely to base a story solely on the opinions of one new contact.

By: Evert

Evert — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 16:25:30 +0000

Personally I think that Damien is on the right track.
Put a framework in place, let people list themselves with some references and let people rate them. This will very quickly weed out any “wasters” and hopefully create a valuable reference source..

By: Damien

Damien — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 14:55:00 +0000

Work away Robin. I personally am in complete disagreement with everyone having their own list. I don’t think that others should dictate what people are experts in since if people want to be talked to by the press, they want to talk about areas they wish to discuss. It should be opt-in by the “expert”.

My idea would be for something where someone can submit their name, expertise (perhaps choose from a dropdown of tags or create a new one), include links to a publications or media appearances page as well as to their blog.

It is meant for quick an easy finding of an expert and reviewing of their expertise. A simple OPML list of blog feeds is useless in my view and correct me if I’m wrong but the likes of Grazr needs java and is not friendly to search engines?

As for voting, I’d prefer a kind of endorsement: “Expert A has 15 endorsements for this area of expertise.” Kind of like linkedin. If it is voting for them being an expert in an area they don’t choose then I would be against that.

If people want to go away and create their own directories of people they see as experts that’s fine but now a journalist is going to have dozens of sources, possibly conflicting, telling them who the experts are. That’s back to square -1 in my view.

By: Robin Blandford

Robin Blandford — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 14:32:33 +0000

Hey Damien,

Been thinking a little more on it – I’d be keen to work something on this.

I’m thinking of it this way – A central site that allows everyone to add, in their view their ‘Subject Experts’, as James has done in OPML as I originally suggested, although it doesn’t have to be in OPML.

From this it would work very like http://share.opml.org/ but categorised or tagged under subject areas. The more people who call you an expert the higher you rank.

I’m keen to build a beta of this – Any thoughts?

By: CyberScribe

CyberScribe — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 10:45:59 +0000

What about some of the bloggers @ Slugger? I'm sure Mick would consider them as 'experts' but will they ever be quoted eg Belfast Gonzo, Fair Deal, Miss Fitz, Bloomsday Girl, Rusty Nail. Most people on the 'blogosphere' would know 'Fair Deal' as 'Fair Deal' but I can't imagine him/her on a panel on TV as an expert discussing the latest 'peace deal' in N.I. Maybe they don't want to open their views up to peer review? It'd be interesting to find out.

By: Branedy

Branedy — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 09:13:10 +0000

You know, I really hate listening to people who think they know it all…

…it really makes life tough for those of us who do!

But over all, this is a good Idea, but authentication of the knowledge quality might be an issue, as this is the heart of or being a subject authority.

By: Damien

Damien — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 08:59:13 +0000

The OPML version is a very interesting idea.

By: Bernie Goldbach

Bernie Goldbach — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 00:48:26 +0000

If different people maintained OPML nodes and awards.ie or some other touchpoint kept the master list, the peer review process would be very simple because peers would pull names onto their nodes based on peer acknowledgement.

If OPML listings got the nod, it would be yet another vetting of a very viable and truly elegant mark-up.