Andrew Keen, the Web's Darth Vader?

LOS ANGELES--Web 2.0 has no clothes, according to Andrew Keen.

The author of the upcoming book, The Cult of the Amateur: How today's Internet is killing our culture and assaulting our Economy, Keen is emerging as the one of the chief critics of new media.

Andrew Keen

(Credit: ZDNet)

Speaking on a panel at the OnHollywood conference here on Thursday, Keen stirred passions by attacking MySpace, YouTube, citizen journalism, the wisdom of crowds and the opinions of teenagers.

"MySpace is creating cultural narcissism in our young," Keen told the audience. "Teenage kids don't have much to say."

The founder of Audiocafe.com in 1995, Keen describes himself as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. In his book, due to be released on June 5, Keen said he writes as "as an insider about a culture that I think has gone wrong."

Keen was challenged by many watching via a live Webcast who were allowed to post comments on a screen displayed near the panel. The general response was that Keen was elitist, fearful of change and an enemy of technology.

The criticism of Keen was thrown into high gear after he argued that the quality of information is eroding thanks to untrained people, "sitting at home in their underpants" practicing amateur journalism.

He predicted that The New York Times and "legitimate journalism" would perish in coming years if the masses continue to choose amateurs over professionals.

"These microcommunities are echo chambers," Keen told the audience. "You have people on the left and the right forming their own communities and the result of all this is less serious discussion. Everyone is only talking to people like themselves."

Keen saved much of his disdain for fellow panel member Justin Kan, founder of JustinTV. Kan has attracted quite a bit of attention for broadcasting his life to the Internet via a Webcam he wears on his head.

"If things continue the way they are, we'll have a nation of Justins," Keen said. "We'll have 250 million people broadcasting themselves and its absurd. When you have 250 million people broadcasting themselves...how much more ludicrous can that be?"

Keen is now a blogger for ZDNet,which is owned by CNET Networks, the publisher of News.com.

[pbg3445]

And we should listen to him--why?

Is he a professional journalist?

[coryschulz]

I agree.. This guys is an idoit...

And I'm sure the only people that will read his book are his parents and friends. The only people that will benefit from his book is no one. Infact, I think his book will even do more damage to himself than good.

The "American Culture" has always been a growing, changing, and merging culture. It is a mix of a variety of people from different geographical locations. And we are staying consistent with that model by adopting the internet and all of the people on it.

I see 250 Million people broadcasting themselves a good thing. It helps ensure our ability of freedom of speech. Most people will still read the news and get information through more reliable sources. And things like Wikipedia help us educate ourselves.

People like him are just living in fear of these beautiful things. They're trying to cling to something that was comfortable at one point in time, but is slowly disappearing and being replaced by newer technologies. People like him have been around forever and release a book everytime something new happens. They point and say "this is going to ruin us!" and they're always wrong. Uncreative Idoits....

[MadKiwi]

Because he's right

The internet is riff with ill-formed, often uneducated and even out-right willful mis-information and what's more people believe it. It's an extension of the dumbing down that can see on television and in pulp media taken to the nth degree and now self inflicted by the dummies.

[davebenham]

We should listen to him because he has some good points

It is hard to deny Keen has some excellent points.

For example, look at Wikipedia. Most of the time it is great, but every now and then, you get some teenage kid posing as a Phd posting. How many other 'experts' are lurking out there? Call me old school, but I think Encyclopedia Britannica is a bit more credible.

[coryschulz]

But we should not abadon it!

If we look at something like Wikipedia and say "this is unreliable crap" and we stop investing in it, then it will surely fail. If we look at it and say "this thing has potential!" than we will continue investing it in and over time Wikipedia will develop methods to make its information more reliable. That's the beauty of it, it's a living thing. It's always developing and growing and restructuring and we all have the power to influence this.

I agree that I would like to see Wikipedia develop some type of system that confirms the information that gets posted is more accurate. But even Encyclopedia Britannica was rated at 98% accurate. Nothing is perfect. But sometimes you trade quality for quantity. Wikipedia will always have a lot more information on it because there are so many people people writing for it. Private Encyclopedias rely on funding and sales. They are more limited in many ways. Wikipedia is free, and a lot of the more popular articles are probably just as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica.

Overall, I think Encyclopedia Britannica is maybe a little more accurate, but still not as strong as Wikipedia and everything it has to offer our species.

[ghostofitpast]

Making Andrew's point in the title line

In the spirit of Andrew's inclinations for the polemic, let me lead with the assertion that comparing him to Darth Vader reflects a cultural framework that gets more information from the movies than from the bookstore. If Andrew is "the Web's X," then the best value for X is Christopher Lasch. Since Lasch's book was never made into a movie, let me introduce him as the author of THE CULTURE OF NARCISSISM: AMERICAN LIFE IN AN AGE OF DIMINISHING EXPECTATIONS. This book was published in 1978, and it definitely deserves reflection in the world the Internet has made. To drawn on the text of Greg's post, if what Andrew has to say about "MySpace, YouTube, citizen journalism, the wisdom of crowds and the opinions of teenagers" is NOT about "diminishing expectations," I can't imagine what would be!

[mr_kurt]

The best way to look wise

Wiliam Butler Yeats said the same thing in a poem, quite some
time ago.

"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."

It is always easiest to seem wise by being negative in the face of
overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Surely, to say such a silly
thing with a straight face, he must have some insight! But of
course that isn't so. He is really just as silly as he sounds.