Blogspot

The name Andrew Keen may not be instantly recognisable. But if I was to say he was the author of The Cult of the Amateur, the Web 2.0-bashing book which was published last month and instantly caused bloggers worldwide to condemn the author as a Luddite, some readers may begin to recognise him.

Keen has become a hate-figure for those who refuse to see any downside to the democratisation of the web that has been ushered in by sites such as YouTube and Flickr.

His viewpoint is neatly summed up in the subtitle of the book: How the Democratization of the Digital World is Assaulting Our Economy, Our Culture, and Our Values.

On his blog, The Great Seduction (the title is a references to the seductive power of this new movement in web technology), Keen happily engages with those who disagree with them.

Unlike most other bloggers who reference their contemporaries or news sources, Keen backs up his arguments with references to some of history's great thinkers such as Dostoievski and Socrates.

Far from believing in the "wisdom of crowds" as so many Web 2.0 cheerleaders do, Keen suggests that "the crowd is banal" and that, rather than being a work of collective intelligence, collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia "infantilises knowledge".

As for Google's YouTube video site, he holds it up as a shining example of "the digital narcissism of the Web 2.0 world".

Keen says that blogs are incapable of providing lasting wisdom to future generations (although that hasn't stopped him blogging enthusiastically).

However, when the hype around Web 2.0 dies down, perhaps Keen's own blog (and book) will be remembered as the first place where someone had the courage to suggest that the emperor was not wearing any clothes.

The Great Seduction

http://andrewkeen.typepad.com/