This entire issue has been folded, spindled and mutilated by large coporations with regards to internal knowledge networking/management. Once you are inside and on your own, validation from external sources may mean nothing. When was the last time someone looked at a doctor’s diploma and asked him where he graduated in his class. Reputations are made by other measures, except for academics who keep looking at those sheepskins and publication lists.

How people gain knowledge-based skills and how these are used is an interesting issue. The current financial crisis (2008) on Wall Street was created by whom and what are their credentials. What happened to Long-Term capital with their Nobel Laureate inputs?

And did a degree from Yale provide adequate credentials for the current president of the US?

The entire “Open” movement needs to be rethought, particularly from the perspective of the role of the “university” and the professorate in the future. What, indeed, is the function of the university when we are in an age of a surfeit of knowledge. Think Wkipedia and go back to the 60’s and the “free university” movement.