And the reason is that Institutes are by and large years behind the cutting edge. Not a problem in slow moving fields like accountancy, but a big issue in fast changing ones like technology.

Evolution of Social Media Expertise (High Level Analysis)

There has been quite a lot of discussion in the last few days and weeks about what precisely a Social Media “Expert” is these days (or even if its wise to call oneself such a thing), and na…

However, it is a problem I’ve heard plenty about before. My husband is a mechanical engineer and is continually frustrated when he hears the term engineer applied to all sorts of jobs such as car mechanics. Like the term social media expert, the term engineer is not protected (unlike accountant) and therefore anyone can use it.

Based on his experience and knowledge my husband is able to call himself a Chartered Engineer, which is protected by his institute. So maybe the solution here is to establish an institute or body that defines what a social media expert is, although I admit it isn’t a simple or quick solution!

Ian – lots of points there. Skills versus knowledge is an interesting axis, likewise wisdom and knowledge. We seem to have lost some of those distinctions, and they are important ones.

I agree that people can have lots of ‘experience’ and not be an expert, I think that is in there somewhere. It definitely isn’t experience alone.

While I don’t disagree with you that ‘expertise’ in anything, online is increasingly subjective (and often self-proclaimed), here’s an alternative thought to play with: democratisation of expertise. There are, I think, a lot of hobbyists on the Internet, and while they may have no formal training (perhaps because their day-job involves something else), they have often racked up enough hours in the chair to know what they are talking about. I say this as an academic — ostensibly I have ‘official’ expertise, in my own field at least, but I quite often meet instructors of various stripes who are less qualified, but a good deal more expert.

But I do recognise the problem you are discussing! Hope I haven’t gone off at too much of a tangent (my speciality).

(BTW, you have a couple of typos: nonsense (no hyphen), and it should be Tim Berners-Lee.)

Firstly i’d like to compliment you on your tone. Your description of your findings makes for a good read whilst absorbing the points you make through confident research,

Secondly, i have to agree that in my own mind Experts would be fairly clear to me as someone who has experience in the field to which they are synonymous with, and experiences consist of failures as almost as much as success for how can someone judge their success otherwise? Wisdom and academia to me are two different things and whilst someone can be educated with ‘expert knowledge’, it’s expert practice that leads me to trust the expertise of the one in question. A doctor who calls himself an expert is dictating textbook more often than not, yet the true expert lies in the person who applies knowledge with the experience gained. It’s why we live, we are here to learn and we will never know everything. Even those i value as experts are still most likely to be learning themselves still and the experts who say there is nothing left for them to know is no expert. In a slight disagreement to a small aspect of your post, time isn’t necessarily a true indication of expertise. 6months and 50years totally depends on whether that person learns from their mistakes and evolves with the times. Someone can fail in 6months and yet be more of an expert than someone who has done it for longer. Do you think?

Best. Ian.