How do you establish who the “real” subject matter expert is in any given field? In an age where there’s the technology to connect with the thoughts of virtually anyone, anywhere, what is the standard for expertise and accepting it?

Is the “real” expert surgeon the most degreed with the perfected suture skills or the one who graduated lower in class rankings & education, with sloppier suturing but higher patient survival? And is “knowing” that person (through social media like Twitter and Facebook) a factor?

These questions are more than academic to me as I struggle to identify the “real” Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in my organization and create an “SME Tree” where we can link SMEs from around the world to people who need to know…and accept… what they know. What is the standard for expertise?

In a world where absolutes are eschewed maybe there are as many standards as opinions. Maybe we’ll be able to say “There’s an app for that!” soon, point our smartphones and have the “Iexpert” program hover augmented reality placards over wouldbe experts through the camera lens. There you’d see education, if that were your standard, patient survival rate, etc.

Thinking about “real” reminded me of the Velveteen Rabbit. http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/williams/rabbit/rabbit.html It’s a tale about a toy bunny who struggles with identity issues, being a lump of fabric in a flesh and blood rabbit world. Perhaps the “real” expert is the one most beloved, the surgeon most trusted whose patient trusts despite lower survival rates because the surgeon is a Facebook friend.

Maybe standards go back to the pennant-type standards of ancient battles. The one you trust is the “real” expert, Montague or Capulet, depending on affiliation. Sports teams today battle on for pennants based on statistics but if you ask which teams are experts you’ll likely be told “statistics be damned.” The Red Sox believe the Yankees “bought” themselves closer to the World Series. The Yankee fans believe those sons of hell Red Sox didn’t deserve to get as far as they got and as for those stinking Angels…Ahem…

Like ancient city/state battles of the past it’s personal connection and subjective opinion that rules allegiance and expert-tagging. So perhaps the educator expert is the one who wins the allegiance of the city/states of students’ souls. Unless you make yourself a “real” (velveteen) expert they will not acknowledge your expertise or offerings in any lasting, meaningful way.

“Book larnin’” will probably remain the standard for subject matter expertise in my organization for the foreseeable future. But perhaps engagement through affection and affiliation has become, for good or ill, the new standard for expertise. For real.

#Chapel Romans 3:19-26 You are graded on the merit of the Sharpshooter of Sin, JESUS. Aim as best you can but you have already won in Him.

#Chapel: Hebrews 11 Don’t look behind the boat at the wake of the past. Look forward where JESUS leads & go fishing Free your faith net

#ChapelChallenge Acts 17 Christianity is not just one philosophy among many for a better way of living but the fact that GOD in Cbrist died for us & lives to give eternal life.

#ChapelChallenge: Mathew 15:8 A logger chooses a tree for a specific purpose & JESUS saves Believers for use of His fruit through them

Two people parrotted what our boss said: I should be more “winsome.” Funny. Growing old, alone & disabled isn’t as much fun as you’d think.

The Power of Iconograhy http://j.mp/2ZFQMl

#ChapelChallenge Ephesians 5:17 The will of GOD will never contradict the Word of God & is not the same as the willfulness of humanity.

#ChapelChallenge Psalm 73 GOD is good in spite of those who betray us. They will lose what they love in ths life but GOD keeps His hold on You.

I don’t know whether this qualifies for Alan Levine’s (@cogdog) “Amazing Stories of Openness” http://cogdog.wikispaces.com/AmazingStoriesso I’ll post it here.

I have a “thing” for amphitheaters. Maybe it’s my Greco-Roman heritage coming out. But I know at least one reason is that during college, while other young people were dating and drugging and studying or whatever I was sitting on the top of my university’s amphitheater on beautiful Autumn days with the wind and a copy of The Chronicles of Narnia. Clive Staple Lewis and I flew on granite and lion, walked on cloud and cleverly turned phrase, until I emerged from a wardrobe and into the Kingdom of GOD.

That spot became the altar where I gave myself to GOD and felt His Presence as never before. And over the years it has always been a part of me.

In my current job I am investigating virtual worlds to see how useful they might be, so I was especially delighted when it turned out that amphitheatres are a great design for a world where you can fly. Coincidentally my own alma mater has a virtual campus.

But it was only today that I realized the amphitheater where they have regular meetings is a replica of the one on their campus from so long ago. And that when attending these meetings I have always sat (unwittingly) on nearly the exact spot on the virtual amphitheater where I saton the real life amphitheater reading Narnia, now in an avatar named for a lion, with a real life dog named Aslan.

Virtual Worlds are the future of education. And the openness of technology allows me to use that futuristic technology to revisit the Bethel of my past whenever I like.