Davidson Reading Assignment

One important word in the passage is “credentialing,” which contextually means seeking an opinion from someone who is considered more qualified. This is as opposed to listening to the ideas of any common person despite his or her academic standing, which often leads to more creative approaches. This is because the more educated people will have similar, more “limited” or standardized thought processes than those who have not been through any type of training. Another important word in this passage is “we” – rather than falling into the hierarchy system of seeking ideas from above, this word alone promotes unification. It evens the playing field simply by ignoring the existence of levels of education; it groups humans together as one conglomerate capable of equal thought from every angle. There is no prejudice and each person’s voice is heard. This passage works because it not only defines crowdsourcing but also refutes the counterargument that would immediately come to mind (experts are experts for a reason). It provides the flaw in one tract thinking and empowers all members of society. This passage is important to the essay as a whole because crowdsourcing is what Duke relied on in its adoption of the iPod initiative. The administrators depended fully on the students as an entity to brainstorm progressive ideas. This relates to this passage because the administrators would be the experts that would have issues “conceiving the problem” that might be blatant to the students. Formal education focuses too heavily on the hierarchy of attention, thus losing the potential resting within those who remain unheard.