Expertise In The Wired Wild West

This ethnographic study reveals how expertise was sought, articulated and actuated across online and offline worlds to enable the evacuation of 38 horses from an isolated ranch in the mountainous region of Northern Colorado following a series of devastating flash floods in September 2013. The shared expertise within a loosely connected community of practice bridged spatial-temporal limitations and afforded opportunities for practical assistance and response, both virtually and on the ground. Interaction via social media articulated the parameters of the emergent problem to be solved, and "cast a net" to find the expertise necessary to address different aspects of the perceived problem. Eventually, more than 60 people with equine expertise converged onto the ranch, bringing their materials to execute a single-day evacuation and relocation of the herd.