Out of the corner of my eye

An article on the BBC, Searching for the truth online, features statements by the self-proclaimed “antichrist of Silicon Valley” Andrew Keen, author of “The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting Our Economy”. The main focus of the BBC article is on how user generated web content is often unreliable or unverifiable - an argument users of Wikipedia will be very familiar with.

A more in-depth interview on the Guardian explores Keen’s opinions in more detail. His argument is founded on his belief that the mainstream, corporate-owned and run media and Web 2.0 user generated content such as that found on Facebook, YouTube and on blogs, cannot coexist: that Web 2.0 is destroying the establishment.

To be fair, he admits that he could have said more about mainstream media such as The Sun or Fox, and that his book is intended to “start the discussion” — however, my main problem is that his argument is fundamentally based on capitalist principles: Keen is “very uncomfortable with the radical altruism - in some ways it’s a legacy of the hippy culture - that lies at the heart of Web 2.0; the idea that we’re all happy to give it away. I don’t think that’s the case. I think the majority of us need to work for money.”

Does he believe, then, that the philosophers and mathematicians of classical civilisation were motivated by money, and that only “professionals” were capable of contributing to the foundations of science and learning as we know them? Does his notion of “culture” include the many artists and musicians throughout history who lived their lives in poverty, only acknowledged as masters long after their deaths?

Keen’s notion of “culture” is based on the belief that only paid professionals can contribute anything of worth, that if you’re not being paid for something, your heart just won’t be in it. “We need to work for money”.

I suppose Einstein’s ideas were trash then, since he was not being paid to formulate relativity while working as a patent clerk? Che Guevara was an amateur, too, self-educated while he travelled South America dossing and hitching. What about those damn ascetics - their contribution to our culture is certainly lacking, as they disdain worldly wealth! It’s lucky we have such highly paid professionals as Bill Gates to contribute to our civilisation’s culture, eh?

There is certainly a great deal of noise on the web, and for an amateur user of the interwebs, picking out the wheat from the chaff can be challenging. The problem is, simply discarding or attacking user generated content is simply absurd and a gross oversimplifcation of the problem: the issue is really filtering, search, metadata, reputation. The issue is being able to find bloggers who actually do know what they’re talking about (for free), and perhaps taking what Jane Doe’s latest Myspace blog entry says as what it’s obviously intended to be. Is Keen unable to differentiate between Sam Ruby and the tenth fake Killers Myspace Profile?

Culture is by its nature democratic; by the people, for the people. To be a professional, you simply need to have professional standards and write content that is recognised as head and shoulders above the rest. To refuse to acknowledge all the valuable, insightful user generated content out there is simply blind support of the establishment. Keen is nothing more than a luddite, not an inspired author of polemic. The mainstream media is killing itself by its submission to the interests of power and capital; the music industry by its hamfisted alienation of its own customers. Those errors are not the fault of the people, and the people have never been cowed by criticism or oppressive regimes into silence. If I want to say something, I will damn well say it, and leave it to the judgement of my fellow human beings if it is something of worth or not.