When No Fact Goes Unchecked
October 31st, 2004Adding to the discussion of Wikipedia and resource trustworthiness, the NYT ran an interesting piece entitled, When No Fact Goes Unchecked. The author of my new favorite book gets a mention:
“To James Surowiecki, the author of “The Wisdom of Crowds,” the emergence of online squads of opposition researchers is mostly a plus. He compared it to the community of programmers who collaboratively create “open-source” software. “The collective judgment is usually very, very good,” he said.
Such systems work best, however, “when people are diverse in information and attitude and opinion,” Mr. Surowiecki said, and act relatively independently of each other. Once they start taking cues from each other, the beneficial effects can be depleted because their judgment can be clouded by bias, he said.”
As librarians, we are accustomed to checking our facts. That’s what makes us different than anyone who does research. We make sure that not only are the resources valid, but that the information that we get from those resources are valid. That said, I really do think that there is a place for collective intelligence in our profession. I don’t know where or how, but I know why. I encourage all librarians to pick up Surowiecki’s book and try to apply his theories to the everyday reference question. (link via Ross Mayfield’s Bookmarks)