Andrew Keen is a victim of the Web 2.0 hype
On the 9th of April I was, together with Giselinde Kuipers and Niels van Doorn from the University of Amsterdam, in a panel to discuss Andrew Keen's book The cult of the amateur: How today's Internet is killing our culture and assaulting our economy.
Keen is a bitter ex-believer in the dot-com dream, who failed to make money with Internet business models in Sillicon Valley. He found out that the only way to make money with self-created content is by writing a book about how bad the Internet is. Sounds familiar?
Keen's business card tells he is 'the antichrist of Sillicon Valley'. On the flipside of his card – yes, I have one! – a picture of his book, plus a recommendation from the New York Times: 'shrewdly argued, he writes with acuity and passion'. Passion, yes – acuity and accuracy no, as Karin Spaink so eloquently had told him in the night before. He was not amused, he told us. Duh.
I think Andrew Keen is a victim of the Web 2.0 hype. He is a believer of the hype, though an inverse believer. Plain believers think that finally on Web 2.0 users are in control. And that this is good, that it brings democracy, equality and truth. Inverse believers also think that users are in control on Web 2.0, but that this is bad: an assault on quality, culture and objective truth.
But they are both wrong. Users are not in control on Web 2.0; software is.
Here is the text I spoke on this occasion.
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