Spotted somewhere earlier, and made a mental note but failed to link to [Piers at Monkey Magic – thanks] an article on the etymology of author and authority. Anyway noticed a post from Johnnie Moore remarking that we no longer look for any “authority” independent of our own view of a source.
I see he is facilitating / presenting at “Blogging – A Real Conversation” over at Knowledge for the Digital Economy.
Ian,
I wrote summat on the etymology here. Probably not the reference, but I quite liked the idea that authority was just a collective noun for a group of diverse, independent authors, where authors was anyone who had something pertinent to say.
Thanks Piers, yes that was indeed the post I’d seen, but failed to link.