A PARADIGM SHIFT. In the last decade, a dramatic paradigm shift has taken place, not by the introduction of new theoretical insights, but by technological evolutions that profoundly impacted epistemic practices profoundly: the socialization of knowledge. The profoundly networked society we created through technology makes us fundamentally more interdependent even for the most basic of judgements. This exemplifies in typical epistemic scenarios, which makes that what we expect from knowledge claims and the way we justify them has evolved. There are 3 major enabling factors at play. First, there is an information abundance compared to the former information scarcity. Second, there is a growing group of highly educated people worldwide, including in the non-working segment of the population, such as retired people, which could compensate for the scarcity of time. Third, social software has created an environment where information is integrated with the human expert communities that support and warrant its interpretation. These factors taken together define a paradigm shift that already has deeply affected scientific practice60. This means that besides the fact that much of our knowledge has become indirect, mediated by communication tools such as the web, apps and social networks, we are seldom alone in making judgements. Long gone are the days of the “Flying doctors”, maybe general practitioners who had to do a minor chirurgical intervention or a child delivery in the xxxx. Today’s Flying doctor no doubt comes equipped with an internet-enabled connection calling in just-in-time information when he/she needs it. A general practitioner in one of today’s many megacities will without any doubt be integrated in a regional expertise network61 connecting him/her with a network of second-line experts. A strange decolouration on the skin of an old lady during a home visit? A smartphone picture is in no time uploaded to a regional hospital where an expert can have a look. But also the relationship with the patient has changed dramatically62: literate patient caretakers can put a strain on family doctors by venturing in online sources such as PubMed without the right training, but on the other hand can be allies in setting up schemes to come to very precise diagnostics. When doing research on holders of typical “reference knowledge” in the professional field, such as IT support people – who seems to have this magical understanding of the computer that eludes many of the average computer...
