Monday, August 25, 2008

http://www.amazon.com/Cult-Amateur-Internet-Killing-Culture/dp/0385520808

one of the most amusing books i`ve read in quite a while.

in it the author finds fault in the prolifieration of myspace, youtube, facebook and blogging sites that allow "amateurs" to post and publish thier own works to share, and suggests this is the end of a functioning culture, and that somehow there will no longer be quality work done by experts as a result.

a little digging will find that the author is a internet tycoon himself and his venture, audiocafe, failed.....

so instead of trying again he writes a hostile criticism of the entire internet culture.

if mr.keen was truly concerned and interested in where culture is heading he would have read a variety of works, many of which are known by experts and amateurs alike as predicing precisely where culture is today.

i will suggest he start with marshall mcluhan, a man who never lived to see youtube, but predicted that it had to happen once society found the means to make it happen.

the author`s society of experts is also manifesting it`s self in meatspace...and his honour guard of lawyers, doctors and other bureaucrats are driving up prices to the point where the cost of everything will be out of reach of everyone but the elite, and us mere amateurs will need a certification to walk down the street.

http://andrewkeen.typepad.com/

here is andrew fully availing himself of a variety of free internet services that only exist on the backs of the desire of amateurs to communicate, for whatever reasons they have. a touch hypocritical..........

i wonder if his content is posted on youtube.

umbass.

7 comments:

Echo said...

Thats what you call Internet freedom envy and Freud himself could have reveled in it.

Good grief

Next thing you know Keen will call us all communists because after all it is a medium of the PEOPLE comrad.

Dr.Alistair said...

hello echo. welcome to hypgnosys.

keen is a fascinating study in old guard niavete.

his advantage is the ability to be able to afford a top publicist. his preaching-to-the-choir rhetoric actually makes me laugh outloud.

i`m sure in his unguarded state he will admit to reading mcluhan and postman etc. and understand the 500 year bubble that we are leaving, created by the printing press and a literate individualist mind, but he finds solace in the attention from the traditional media looking for a champion as the tribes of bloggers wait for it`s imminent demise.

American Hill BIlly said...

Good post, and thanks for the heads up. One of the last post's I did was on how the "Establishment" wants to "slow" the net down....To halt an i9/11??? It is simply a moved point. If an i9/11 took place, then one of the primary goals/effects would be a slowing of the net.... These people are all bastards, and are bent on trying to slow down this wonderful information sharing ability.....Catch you later my friend.


United In Peace And Freedom

Dr.Alistair said...

well, my point in commentary and in theraputic work is freedom, and so any mechanism that decries our ability to access freedom needs to be spotlighted.

mr.keen has a blog and disallows comments that criticize his points of view. i have commented there several times and have yet to be published.

Dr.Alistair said...

well, my point in commentary and in theraputic work is freedom, and so any mechanism that decries our ability to access freedom needs to be spotlighted.

mr.keen has a blog and disallows comments that criticize his points of view. i have commented there several times and have yet to be published.

X. Dell said...

(1) Actually, I don't see much hypocracy in being critical of the WWW yet still maintaining a webpage. If that is a medium he is comfortable providing content for, so be it, especially since he'll then reach the people for whom these matters have the most meaning.

(2) From what I've read in the book itself, there are major problems in his setting up of the premise--actually, it's amateurish (oddly enough). 'Professionalism' isn't well defined. Neither is 'quality' early on. Since these are his majro premises, it would help to find a discussion of concepts very early on, and a consistent application of them later. (One reviewer noted a fluidity of meaning as the book progressed.)

(3) There are a number of instances in falty logic in the introduction alone to see that the book will be highly problematic. As the old joke goes, it's good and original: unfortunately, the good isn't original, and the original isn't very good. The most glaring premise is that professionalism provides competent content. I would say that the degree of competency on the Internet as opposed to hard-copy "gatekeeper" (what us musicians call "preaudience") sources is about equal.

Since he has two chapters on music, I would be quite interested in reading them, for the reaction against professionalism in music was profoundly philosophical. In essence, it's the championing of the cultural aesthetics and values of one segment of society over another.

(4) Interestingly enough, I found some very interesting observations on his blog. While he may have been a witness to them independently, many scholars (whom he doesn't credit) have noted these trends earlier. And that highlights a second flaw from what I se in the introduction and the review. The web didn't create anti-intellectualism. It didn't create narcisism, self-righteousness, et cetera. It didn't create inaccurate media. People did. The medium of the internet simply exacerbates all the tendencies of other media, because it is so hugely responsive and interactive.

Dr.Alistair said...

thanks for your comments regarding mr.keen x-dell and billy.

mr.keen takes an old guard position that his culture and expertise is "good" and what is emerging via the internet and other new media is somehow "bad". his approach misses the simple fact that the majority of everything done by humans is accomplished by amateurs, everything from raising children to performing music to solving problems.......much to the dismay of "experts" looking to control markets and fees.


and of course we see that the culture of experts is as fallable as the rest of us.

and bureaucrats mix with artists as well as oil and water.the pressure to create such an emulsion produces interesting results.

i would say that mr.keen and his choir are feeling threatened by the potential for mob rule that youtube and other self-publishing media provide.

he asks how google expects to monetize websites.....but the point is that what is being sold are the devices required to access the web it`s self.

macluhan predicted this 40 years ago.

the media is the message.

computers and internet(s).

so what is google then if it`s not directly interested in profit?

government?