- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: Crown Business (Jun 5 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0385520808
- ISBN-13: 978-0385520805
- Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 14.4 x 2.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 381 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #288,959 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Keen's relentless "polemic" is on target about how a sea of amateur content threatens to swamp the most vital information and how blogs often reinforce one's own views rather than expand horizons. But his jeremiad about the death of "our cultural standards and moral values" heads swiftly downhill. Keen became somewhat notorious for a 2006 Weekly Standard essay equating Web 2.0 with Marxism; like Karl Marx, he offers a convincing overall critique but runs into trouble with the details. Readers will nod in recognition at Keen's general arguments—sure, the Web is full of "user-generated nonsense"!—but many will frown at his specific examples, which pretty uniformly miss the point. It's simply not a given, as Keen assumes, that Britannica is superior to Wikipedia, or that record-store clerks offer sounder advice than online friends with similar musical tastes, or that YouTube contains only "one or two blogs or songs or videos with real value." And Keen's fears that genuine talent will go unnourished are overstated: writers penned novels before there were publishers and copyright law; bands recorded songs before they had major-label deals. In its last third, the book runs off the rails completely, blaming Web 2.0 for online poker, child pornography, identity theft and betraying "Judeo-Christian ethics." (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
What the experts are saying about Andrew Keen’s thought-provoking polemic
“My initial reaction to the book was: ‘Geez, I have a lot of things to think about now.’ For people immersed in the social communities of Web 2.0, this is bound to be a thought-provoking and sobering book. While I don't agree with everything Keen says, there is page after page of really interesting insight and research. I look forward to the much-needed debate about the problems that Keen articulates—which can't be lightly dismissed.”
—Larry Sanger, co-founder, Wikipedia and founder, Citizendium
“Marvelous and provocative . . . . I think this is a powerful stop and breathe book in the midst of the obsessions and abstraction of folks seeking comfort in Web 2.0. Beautifully written too.”
—Chris Schroeder, former CEO, WashingtonPost/Newsweek online and CEO, Health Central Network
“Important . . . will spur some very constructive debate. This is a book that can produce positive changes to the current inertia of web 2.0.
—Martin Green, vice president of community, CNET
“For anyone who thinks that technology alone will make for a better democracy, Andrew Keen will make them think twice.”
—Andrew Rasiej, founder, Personal Democracy Forum
“Very engaging, and quite controversial and provocative. He doesn’t hold back any punches.”
—Dan Farber, editor-in-chief, ZDNet
“Andrew Keen is a brilliant, witty, classically-educated technoscold—and thank goodness. The world needs an intellectual Goliath to slay Web 2.0's army of Davids.”
—Jonathan Last, online editor, The Weekly Standard
“My initial reaction to the book was: ‘Geez, I have a lot of things to think about now.’ For people immersed in the social communities of Web 2.0, this is bound to be a thought-provoking and sobering book. While I don't agree with everything Keen says, there is page after page of really interesting insight and research. I look forward to the much-needed debate about the problems that Keen articulates—which can't be lightly dismissed.”
—Larry Sanger, co-founder, Wikipedia and founder, Citizendium
“Marvelous and provocative . . . . I think this is a powerful stop and breathe book in the midst of the obsessions and abstraction of folks seeking comfort in Web 2.0. Beautifully written too.”
—Chris Schroeder, former CEO, WashingtonPost/Newsweek online and CEO, Health Central Network
“Important . . . will spur some very constructive debate. This is a book that can produce positive changes to the current inertia of web 2.0.
—Martin Green, vice president of community, CNET
“For anyone who thinks that technology alone will make for a better democracy, Andrew Keen will make them think twice.”
—Andrew Rasiej, founder, Personal Democracy Forum
“Very engaging, and quite controversial and provocative. He doesn’t hold back any punches.”
—Dan Farber, editor-in-chief, ZDNet
“Andrew Keen is a brilliant, witty, classically-educated technoscold—and thank goodness. The world needs an intellectual Goliath to slay Web 2.0's army of Davids.”
—Jonathan Last, online editor, The Weekly Standard
Inside This Book
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Controversial, yes... horrible? No...,
By
This review is from: The Cult of the Amateur: How blogs, MySpace, YouTube, and the rest of today's user-generated media are destroying our economy, our culture, and our values (Hardcover)
I'm part of the youth that grew up in the 90s and fully embraced the internet and this whole "amateur" revolution.I must admit, I was a fervent supporter of the whole "amateur" movement before I read this book. After reading it, well, let's just say I'm back to neutral ground. The book leans heavily towards the counter "amateur" movement (put the power to a select few and not on the general populace). While I agree with some of the points he made, I think instead of leaning heavily on the left or right side of this argument, we really should find some kind of balance if that's at all possible. Nonetheless, the book is captivating. I've read a ton of books similar in genre and they've been a tad preachy and devoid of any life. I really liked the book. Never bored me once. Makes you re-think about your stance.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great ideas, but arguments are lacking,
By
This review is from: The Cult of the Amateur: How blogs, MySpace, YouTube, and the rest of today's user-generated media are destroying our economy, our culture, and our values (Paperback)
If the purpose of this book is to "create conversation about the digital revolution" (as suggested by the author in the book's forward), then it has accomplished its purpose.However, after much reflection and peer discussion, I find many of the author's arguments do not sufficiently address and discredit the alternate views. The result of not addressing these counterarguments is that it weakens his own arguments. The author completely misses a significant advantage of on-line collaboration: "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow" (dubbed Linus' Law by Eric S. Raymond). Although Wikipedia is less accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica (but not by much: a report by the science magazine Nature vol.438, #531, noted that Wikipedia had, on average, only 4 errors per entry to EB's 3 errors), errors in Wikipedia entries can be identified and corrected dynamically (while the errors in EB are only corrected after the next printing!) An MIT study found that an obsenity randomly placed on a Wikipedia page gets removed in an average of 1.7 minutes. The author also conveniently (purposely?) misses the most successful example of on-line collaboration: peer production of open source software. If the author's arguments were applied to this domain, then peer produced software would be amateurish, unreliable, and insecure. However, software like Linux (arguably the most stable, configurable, and customizable operating system), Apache (which runs on the majority of web servers), OpenOffice (a full featured office suite rivaling Microsoft Office), and Firefox (the fastest growing web browser in terms of use) are all examples of exceptional software that rival proprietary software. All of these projects have been developed with peer input -- over the Internet.
4 of 10 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
shrill and retrograde, too,
By
This review is from: The Cult of the Amateur: How blogs, MySpace, YouTube, and the rest of today's user-generated media are destroying our economy, our culture, and our values (Hardcover)
Mr. Keen is a strident opponent of the user participation that has been brought to us via the Web. As I read his polemic I could only think ofthe master of a scriptorium railing at the advent of printing or a farrier ruing the coming of the automobile. Moreover, his accusations are undocumented and the citations in his notes are second- and third-hand. If I want the words of T.H. Huxley (cited on p. 2), I do not want then via a translation of Borges. Many of his "accusations" -- e.g. that Lessig "laud[s] the appropriation of intellectual property" (p. 24) -- are flatly untrue. There is one (trivial) reference to Eric S. Raymond; there are two to Tim O'Reilly; Tim Berners-Lee and Richard M. Stallman are MIA. If you need to burn a $20 bill; burn it. Don't bother buying this.
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