From: Carter Glass <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 11:17:11 -0400

Yes. All one needs to do is spend a little time on 'rating' sites such
as Yelp to see the the dubious value of the 'wisdom of the crowd'.

Also, the collective IQ of the hive-mind *by definition* converges to average.

Carter Glass

On 6/12/2013 9:00 AM, LIBLICENSE wrote:
>
> From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 09:08:21 -0500
>
> But if you are going to be making some decision based on such
> assessments--such as deciding whether to subscribe to or recommend a
> journal to one's clientele (or whether to promote or give tenure to a
> professor)--you need to have some basis for evaluating the
> trustworthiness of the assessors. This is entirely lacking in the case
> of student evaluators. Who is to say one student's opinion is more
> trustworthy than another's? It is often lacking in general comments in
> places like The Chronicle and InsideHigherEd also, not to mention
> blogs.  That is why the service performed by publications like the
> THES when it reviewed journals is so valuable.  Reviewers are chosen,
> like the reviewers for articles, on the basis of proven expertise in
> the subject area. One may choose to disagree with the assessment, but
> at least one knows that the opinion expressed is an informed opinion.
> Open reviews of journals would be as useful as book reviews on Amazon
> where one usually has no idea what qualifies the reviewer to express
> an opinion.  Even popular TV shows like "The Voice" or "Dancing with
> the Stars" have panels of experts who are passing judgments on the
> performances, even though winners are chosen in large part by majority
> vote.
>
> Sandy Thatcher