Just because the internet doesn’t have a spine on which to put an author’s name, it doesn’t mean people won’t care who is doing the writing.
Andrew Keen fears that the mutterings of a wise man will be worth no more than the mutterings of a fool. This is where “experts” such as Keen should go back, do some more research and update their opinions. As Rheingold thought, freeloaders and worthless contributors will be sifted out and the very same “YOU” that Keen talks about being both creator and consumer also acts as judge, jury, and executioner. Sites such as Digg allow the consumer head of the two-headed YOU! monster to collectively deem created content viable or garbage.
While Keen thinks that consumers creating their own content and driving attention away from the main stream media is actually hurting the content that they so consumeratley crave, it is, in fact, doing the opposite and creating new content that is more in tune with its audience. The web is, in fact, a machine and the machine is growing and, some would argue, approaching singularity as the machine melds with YOU! and is growing and sustaining itself through the million eyes constantly watching it, constantly shifting and sharing perspectives, which is where Keen is wrong. Consumers are not killing the grand, great idea that was the internet, consumers are growing with and expanding what the new web is.
While people still try to give merit to a monkey scratching its butt, there are those in the collective YOU! who will not give merit, and these people tend to overshadow those who continue to aimlessly wander through the web. Wikipedia rolls on due to YOUsers policing the site for bad content and giving merit to the voice of the wise man over the fool. Andrew Keen should open his eyes and have a look around. Maybe he’ll see the world for what it is, not for what he despises it as.
