Reading Clay Shirky‘s Here comes everybody: The power of organizing without organizations at the moment.
What he says on professionals:
Much of the time the internal consistency of professional judgment is a good thing – not only do we want high standards of education and competence, we want those standards created and enforced by other members of the same profession, a structure that is almost the definition of professionalism. Sometimes, though, the professional outlook can become a disadvantage, preventing the very people who have the most at stake – the professionals themselves – from understanding major changes to the structure of their profession. In particular, when a profession has been created as a result of some scarcity, as with librarians or television programmers, the professionals are often the last ones to see it when that scarcity goes away. It is easier to understand that you face competition than obsolescence.
(pp.58 – 59)
The book is an easy read so far, but deceptively so, as Shirky has a lot to say on the effects that the Web and communications technology are having on the world today.