Experts in any matter do have a good deal of advantage within the field of their expertise, but that doesn’t necessarily put them significantly ahead of any others. As discussed earlier, in a multitude of domains experts therein will give very similar results to amateurs using the internet to accomplish the same tasks. This leads one to question what then, is the benefit of being considered an expert in this day and age. The most evident advantage there is the performance difference between experts and amateurs. As discussed above, Weerts & Mizrach (2009) found that there is a slight, but significant difference in the performance between experts and novices. Likewise, Andrew Keen (2008) holds that the drowning out of the voices of professionals is a key problem in the degradation of the works in those professions, thus illustrating that there must be at least some merit to their status. There are also those within an area that are highly regarded purely based off of merit as is presented by Stewart MacCallum (2013) in the rise of fan-producers making works based on video games. This is the case with these individuals because they are able to utilize humor and entertainment rather than any practical skill to make themselves popular. Even more noteworthy in this case is the fact that there isn’t necessarily a set professional class in the field of fan-production just as is true with DIY culture. In both of these cases, the groups most representative of a professional class are basically those that best convey something to others, be it humor or instruction.
An expert of DIY humor.
Skills Bonanaza! 