Decisionmakers (e.g. funders and policymakers) tend to use a mixture of desk research, interviews with experts, and workshops with experts to inform their decisions. Online forums where questions can be asked of experts could be a useful part of this process. Forums are useful compared with desk research as information can be sought that may not be covered in existing sources. They are useful compared with interviews and workshops as they require less organisational overhead to get expert input and what is learned is automatically public and usable by others. However, in current expert forums (e.g. stackexchange and various Ask subreddits) it is unclear how credible the people answering are, and it is likely that many of them are enthusiastic amateurs rather than experts, especially in forums on more qualitative subjects. There could be a fund to support more rigorous forums that vet the people answering and moderate carefully. Money could also be used to incentivise contribution, as one challenge with forums is having enough experts to answer questions, especially niche questions. These forums could not only help decisionmakers but also other people seeking expert knowledge, including journalists, practitioners, and the general public. If the forums were well-known and credible enough, then linking to answers could become a form of citation.
Credible expert Q&A forums
Epistemic institutions
Decisionmakers (e.g. funders and policymakers) tend to use a mixture of desk research, interviews with experts, and workshops with experts to inform their decisions. Online forums where questions can be asked of experts could be a useful part of this process. Forums are useful compared with desk research as information can be sought that may not be covered in existing sources. They are useful compared with interviews and workshops as they require less organisational overhead to get expert input and what is learned is automatically public and usable by others. However, in current expert forums (e.g. stackexchange and various Ask subreddits) it is unclear how credible the people answering are, and it is likely that many of them are enthusiastic amateurs rather than experts, especially in forums on more qualitative subjects. There could be a fund to support more rigorous forums that vet the people answering and moderate carefully. Money could also be used to incentivise contribution, as one challenge with forums is having enough experts to answer questions, especially niche questions. These forums could not only help decisionmakers but also other people seeking expert knowledge, including journalists, practitioners, and the general public. If the forums were well-known and credible enough, then linking to answers could become a form of citation.
This sounds a bit like the EA Librarian?
I’d like that on this forum tbh