Validating Information
Clarence Fisher,
Dec 19, 2005
I think there are answers to the concerns Clarence Fisher raises in this item, but I think it is important that the concerns be aired. He reaises two major objections to the concept of validating information through aggregation. First, students do not have the opportunity. "Most often our kids work in units of study." And second, "as St. Augustine says, 'volume does not make right.'" And I think Fisher is exactly right to point to WalMart's (and, I might add, Chapters's) book vending policies to show why you can't simply go with the aggregate. The point of my response is, essentially, not just any aggregate validates information, just as not just any pile of sand makes a castle. It has to be organized in a specific way. And right now, WalMart and Technorati suffer from the same sort of malformed organization - trying to identify emergent properties (and hence valid information) by counting things. It doesn't work that way.
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