Authority

There is a feature on technorati called Authority. Nice feature, I am sure. Though, I am not sure what it means. Add to this the fact that there is no way I can find out who has given whome authority. Over what!

Added to this was the fact that on the Help page, there are tons of queries about Authority, but no responses. This brings out two things:

1. A lot of the social computing concepts out there are still not totally user friendly. But this is to be expected considering a lot of these concepts are not at a stage where they have evolved to consider user needs to a large extent. At another level, maybe a lot of the social computing tools are coming up with features, and then, we as users are finding out ways to use these features. Does this mean that there are a lot of bone-headed ideas oout there? Not that Authority is necessarily one of them, but I would be able to figure that out only when I figure out what it means.

2. It is not necessary that having the relevant social network would get you an answer to your question. But then, its not meant to. It is only increasing the probability that connecting to the right people would lead you in the right direction, but thats not necessary. The issue at hand is that most champions of social software are championing this as the answer to all your questions ... Something that it is not. This is something to be guarded against. We have seen this with BPR and with ERP, where the tool was touted as something which would do everything for you, except get you a cup of Coffee!

It is highly important that we look at the limitations of the technology, both in terms of the basioc limitations, as well as limitations brought in by the current level of maturity of the technology.