Comments on: The inter-mediators: Subject matter experts with a dash of Web 2.0 http://hummingbird604.com/2008/05/23/the-inter-mediators-subject-matter-experts-with-a-dash-of-web-20/ The personal blog of a Vancouver-based educator in environmental issues Wed, 23 May 2012 06:23:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Barbara Doduk http://hummingbird604.com/2008/05/23/the-inter-mediators-subject-matter-experts-with-a-dash-of-web-20/comment-page-1/#comment-976 Barbara Doduk Fri, 23 May 2008 18:36:30 +0000 http://hummingbird604.wordpress.com/?p=887#comment-976 I think it is great you are looking at all the options of where your career can take you. In the end you might well do all those things, and more, it's a long life and the world is open to you. Good luck. I think it is great you are looking at all the options of where your career can take you. In the end you might well do all those things, and more, it’s a long life and the world is open to you. Good luck.

]]> By: Cecily http://hummingbird604.com/2008/05/23/the-inter-mediators-subject-matter-experts-with-a-dash-of-web-20/comment-page-1/#comment-975 Cecily Fri, 23 May 2008 16:23:45 +0000 http://hummingbird604.wordpress.com/?p=887#comment-975 Such intermediaries already exist in some communities - I know, because I've acted as one in two separate situations. When I was a usability expert/interaction designer, I was the intermediary between the customers who used our products and the developers who built the products. I was the person who watched the user work with our systems, talked to them about their struggles and successes, and translated this data into a set of actionable recommendations for improving our websites and software. I'd routinely hold focus groups for customers and visit customers in their homes/offices to ask them "hey, what do you want from us?" Now, as a librarian, I'm an intermediary between library customers and the information they need. These days, my job largely involves helping people evaluate the information they find on the internet for validity, authority, timeliness, etc. I also show users how to get deeper, better, more targeted results by using tech speak (advanced search strings) and empowering them to find this information on their own, either free on the internet, or through walled databases that the library has subscriptions to. Granted, many librarians are generalists, but at a large public library like VPL, we have dozens of subject matter expert librarians, and these kind of "expert" librarians are quite common at university libraries (where they're often members of the faculty). Lots and lots of librarians are using 2.0 technologies to enhance the services they've been providing for years - a leading expert in this field is David Lee King. He's worth looking up on The Google. The concept isn't a new one, really. We're all intermediaries when we show our less technical family members how to use a piece of technology or a web service, and we share in their joy when they finally understand how to best make use of that technology themselves. We serve as intermediaries in an informal sense every day, and I think there are many of us out there in the web world (2.0 or otherwise) who take a more active, public role in connecting people to wider connections (if that makes sense). I wasn't at Barefoot's talk so I'm not sure if he was talking about a more formalized, centralized intermediary role taken on by one or more "experts", but just as their are many communities, there should be many experts. As you pointed out, people respond better to people who speak their language, so it's important that this kind of information doesn't come from someone that the community views as an outsider. Such intermediaries already exist in some communities – I know, because I’ve acted as one in two separate situations. When I was a usability expert/interaction designer, I was the intermediary between the customers who used our products and the developers who built the products. I was the person who watched the user work with our systems, talked to them about their struggles and successes, and translated this data into a set of actionable recommendations for improving our websites and software. I’d routinely hold focus groups for customers and visit customers in their homes/offices to ask them “hey, what do you want from us?”

Now, as a librarian, I’m an intermediary between library customers and the information they need. These days, my job largely involves helping people evaluate the information they find on the internet for validity, authority, timeliness, etc. I also show users how to get deeper, better, more targeted results by using tech speak (advanced search strings) and empowering them to find this information on their own, either free on the internet, or through walled databases that the library has subscriptions to.

Granted, many librarians are generalists, but at a large public library like VPL, we have dozens of subject matter expert librarians, and these kind of “expert” librarians are quite common at university libraries (where they’re often members of the faculty). Lots and lots of librarians are using 2.0 technologies to enhance the services they’ve been providing for years – a leading expert in this field is David Lee King. He’s worth looking up on The Google.

The concept isn’t a new one, really. We’re all intermediaries when we show our less technical family members how to use a piece of technology or a web service, and we share in their joy when they finally understand how to best make use of that technology themselves. We serve as intermediaries in an informal sense every day, and I think there are many of us out there in the web world (2.0 or otherwise) who take a more active, public role in connecting people to wider connections (if that makes sense). I wasn’t at Barefoot’s talk so I’m not sure if he was talking about a more formalized, centralized intermediary role taken on by one or more “experts”, but just as their are many communities, there should be many experts. As you pointed out, people respond better to people who speak their language, so it’s important that this kind of information doesn’t come from someone that the community views as an outsider.

]]> By: Beth http://hummingbird604.com/2008/05/23/the-inter-mediators-subject-matter-experts-with-a-dash-of-web-20/comment-page-1/#comment-974 Beth Fri, 23 May 2008 15:49:22 +0000 http://hummingbird604.wordpress.com/?p=887#comment-974 In the health sciences, we talk about "knowledge translation" - which is the same as what you are talking about here. The point of KT is not that the academics just do research and tell people what we found, but rather that we engage the "research users" (e.g., clinicians, patients, families, communities) throughout the entire research project (including "hey people in the real world, what do YOU want us to research? what would help YOU?") - like you said, bidirectional. And it requires people who know the field but can also speak to the people. This blog post is very similar to one I've had rolling around in my head for a while now. Great minds.... In the health sciences, we talk about “knowledge translation” – which is the same as what you are talking about here. The point of KT is not that the academics just do research and tell people what we found, but rather that we engage the “research users” (e.g., clinicians, patients, families, communities) throughout the entire research project (including “hey people in the real world, what do YOU want us to research? what would help YOU?”) – like you said, bidirectional. And it requires people who know the field but can also speak to the people. This blog post is very similar to one I’ve had rolling around in my head for a while now. Great minds….

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