Finally, there was a strong desire from all groups for access
to more and deeper expert accounts. This was surprising to
us, especially as it seems to contradict the other findings. In
light of the other two issues just described, however, this
in fact may not be that surprising.We feel that the issue here
is not so much a desire to absorb the expert accounts, to simply
know and acknowledge the expert’s voice, but to access
an authoritative account to give sense to the user. This sense,
as any educator knows, has to be made in their own terms, but
they have to start somewhere. The results of this study suggest,
strongly, that users are not interested in accessing an object
simply to speak about it in their own terms—as is assumed by
many grassroots approaches—but that they are interested in
developing an understanding of an object through narratives
and dialogues with others, especially with “experts.”