Stephen Downes

When we were reseraching how town managers learn new things, we discovered that they most often pick up the phone and ask someone. This method - word of mouth - continues to be one of the most common methods of diffusing information today. This article offers arguments why it should be replaced: first, "It's challenging to get beyond the 'usual suspects.'", second, "Mental models about innovation can get stuck," and third, "trusted recommendations are reliable…unless they're not." The story pitches a yet-to-be described replacement for word of mouth, "an alternate discovery strategy." But here's the thing: word of mouth isn't just a discovery strategy. Each person in a word-of-mouth chain is also an assessor, testing and validating advice before passing it along. You can't short-circuit it with central information management.