[Air-L] Open-What?

[elijah wright]

> > 5. I was at a conference last week at which a frequent blogger was often
> > quoted as the authority, although I think this blogger has had at most one
> > refereed article published. "Have you checked on the validity of [this
> > blogger's] assertions?" I asked. "Well now, we just assumed," was the
> > answer. Is this any way to build a discipline?
>
> Is ignoring someone because they don't adhere to the antiquated rituals
> any way to build a discipline?

This is not ignoring someone because of antiquated rituals; a person
of this stripe will be ignored (or at least have their work
*seriously* questioned...) because they haven't done the work (peer
review, publishing, external oversight) that is necessary to establish
themselves as a trusted member of the scholarly community.  Most
people want that - to be trusted.

Blogging regularly and at length does not establish a person's
position on any sane metric of trust... scholarly or otherwise.

Sorry, my apologies, et cetera -- it just doesn't.

There are people who have managed to become 'authorities' without
going through the established mechanisms for doing so, but they are
rather few and far between.

--elijah