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I have posted an essay to my blog concerning the use of experts by BigThink. I hope it can contribute to further iterations of the site!

http://schulzechair.blogspot.com

Best,
MikeK

Hi Mike,
Thank you so much for your blog post. We designed this site so that everyone can become an expert. We will be featuring great ideas from everyone on the homepage and on our blog. You can see a few up today (1/9/07). Another way to get great user-generated ideas to rise up on the homepage is by voting on them. Our hope is that great ideas are determined democratically, through voting. As we just launched this week, expert- user ideas are going to take some time to find until they match the amount of ideas we have produced here. But please keep them coming! And we hope to see more and more ideas from folks like you up on the site. Thanks again Mike! -Brett

BigThink about page indicates that the topics on the site consist of the big issues we face in modern times - then environment, politics, business, science, technology. Where do things like fashion fit in? This is where I think BigThink could get itself into trouble from a mission point of view - start straying from the intellectual discussion to topics like fashion. There's nothing highly intellectual about fashion, unless its related to biodegradable clothes or something.

This leads me to my second topic of what makes a "Expert Big Thinker." Its really pretty subjective. I can see plenty of scenarios where people might not be CEOs or a politician, maybe not even known on a large scale, but are much more "expert," in an area than your "experts." What I'm driving at is I think you need to be really careful on who you invite in and who you overlook. It would be really cool if someone who has a passion for something like leadership or culture, but might not have written a book, for example, to become some sort of expert. I guess what I'm driving at is just because you've founded a company or published a book, doesn't mean you are wise or even moral.

- Jon

jonutah, You've hit the nail on the head with regard to where the experts should come from. It seems as though you've read my blog posting (address above), but, if not, you will find your ideas to be in good company there. In my opinion, BigThink has an opportunity here to change the way we think about experts. It will take some planning and changes to the interface, but I think it's well worth the effort. As an aside, there are people like myself who have the training to collaborate with non-elite experts (traditional elders, for example) in the gathering and presentation of knowledge. Perhaps there could be a BigThink venue for this kind of resource.