DO PUBLIC ELECTRONIC BULLETIN BOARDS HELP CREATE SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE- THE COLD-FUSION CASE

The impact of new technologies on the transformation of information in to knowledge is not clear. Especially problematic is the degree to whi ch electronic communication can replace traditional forums in which in formation is judged and social consensus about its value is achieved. This article uses electronic bulletin boards active during the cold fu sion saga that began in 1989 to explore these issues. Dividing the con tents, of the bulletin boards into big ideas and little ideas, the art icle suggests that only about half of all messages on the boards were big ideas, and only half of those were on technical issues. The study suggests that the substantial volume of irrelevant material and the di fficulty of applying extratextual cues to the judgement of information made the bulletin boards an ineffective tool for creating knowledge i n this case.