Keen vs Weinberger
The Wall Street Journal has a full-text transcript of a discussion (via Poynter) between authors Andrew Keen (The Cult of the Amateur: How the Internet is Killing Our Culture) and David Weinberger (Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder, Small Pieces Loosely Joined, Clutrain Manifesto):
Keen starts off with a hyperbole-laden diatribe about how awful the Web is. To which Weinberger countered: "Amateurs aren't driving out the pros, Andrew. The old media are available on line. If some falter, other credentialed experts will emerge. But the criteria governing our choice of whom to listen to are expanding from 'Those are the only channels I get' and 'I read it in a book' to 'I've heard this person respond intelligently when challenged,' 'People I respect recommend her,' and even 'A mob finds this person amusing.' This is the new media literary, suited to the new abundance. ...The history of the Web so far says that we are highly motivated to come up with ways to make sense of a world richer and more interesting than the constrained resources of the traditional media let on."
Fabulous.
A smart woman pointed out in a comment on a previous post I wrote, that although initially taken by some of Keen's arguments, or held capitive by the nightmare scenario he painted rather, she found it strange that a guy who thought so bad of bloggers was such an ardent blogger himself. So much so that if you didn't know better you might suspect him of link baiting, or link whoring even...
