This is in reference to the State of Georgia wanting a bibliography of references from authoritative ’experts’ in the field of automotive, law, and defensive driving for a new Defensive Driving Instruction Manual.

Who or what determines if a person is an authority on a subject? According to dictionary.com (the online ‘authority’ for definitions), the word ‘authority’ can be described as an accepted source of information. So who determines if the source is accepted?

According to iSeries.com (IBM) the term ‘authority’ means how someone is authorized to use an object. It seems anyone can determine authorization of anything to anyone.

Wikipedia.com states, “Since the emergence of the social sciences, authority has been a subject of research in a variety of empirical settings; the family (parental authority), small groups (informal authority of leadership), intermediate organizations, such as schools, churches, armies, industries and bureaucracies (organizational and bureaucratic authorities) and society-wide or inclusive organizations, ranging from the most primitive tribal society to the modern nation-state and intermediate organization (political authority).”

Based on the above, a 19-year veteran of the State of Georgia’s Defensive Driving program should be an authority on the subject to which he teaches.

“An expert on a subject” is also a definition for authority according to dictionary.com. Therefore, we must define the word “expert”.

Again, we go to Wikipedia.com as our source:

“An expert is someone widely recognized as a reliable source of technique or skill whose faculty for judging or deciding rightly, justly, or wisely is accorded authority and status by their peers or the public in a specific well distinguished domain. An expert, more generally, is a person with extensive knowledge or ability in a particular area of study. Experts are called in for advice on their respective subject, but they do not always agree on the particulars of a field of study. An expert can be, by virtue of training, education, profession, publication or experience, believed to have special knowledge of a subject beyond that of the average person, sufficient that others may officially (and legally) rely upon the individual’s opinion.”

Consequently, a 19-year veteran of the State of Georgia’s Defensive Driving program is also an expert in his field, based on the information above (experience being the number one). Suffice it to say that the expert’s opinion has value.

If a 29-year veteran employee of the State of Georgia Department of Driver Services acknowledges that they, themselves, are NOT an expert in their own field, they have not learned much during their course of employment.

“Expertise consists of those characteristics, skills and knowledge of a person (that is, expert) or of a system, which distinguish experts from novices and less experienced people.” [Wikipedia.com]

Wikipedia: A reliable authentic source to satisfy Georgia’s Department of Driver Services? Undetermined.

‘Less experienced’ may be a key phrase above. Experience should be the most important factor in determining whether one is or is not an expert.

“Marie-Line Germain (Germain, 2006) developed a measure of perception of employee expertise called the Generalized Expertise Measure (GEM). She defined a behavioral dimension in “experts”, in addition to the dimensions suggested by Swanson and Holton (2001). Her 16-item scale contains objective expertise items and subjective expertise items. Objective items were named Evidence-Based items. Subjective items (the remaining 11 items from the measure below) were named Self-Enhancement items because of their behavioral component. This person has knowledge that is specific to his or her field of work. This person shows that they have the education necessary to be an expert in his/her field. This person has knowledge about his/her field. This person has the qualifications required to be an expert in his/her field. This person has been trained in his or her area of expertise.” [Wikipedia.com]

Again, I ask: Does a 19-year veteran of the State of Georgia’s Defensive Driving program qualify as an expert? From the information gathered on the WorldWideWeb, the answer is “Yes”.

Mark Twain defined an expert as “an ordinary fellow from another town”.

Will Rogers described an expert as “A man fifty miles from home with a briefcase.”

So, who’s to judge except those with the power to judge?

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