Andrew Keen, host of TechCrunch TV (example interview here: http://www.techcrunch.tv/show/keen-on), wrote the Cult of the Amateur (free preview: http://books.google.com/books?id=Z59TDBx1U2UC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false), a book where he states his views upon the ‘web 2.0’ and how he feels it is debasing our culture. Keen, who admits he started out as a strong supporter of the internet, believes the web 2.0 where everyone can blog, make videos, comment, and generally say what they want without having to prove who they are or provide support for what they say. This flood of noise, of everyone on the internet talking about whatever is drowning out the real media, according to Keen. He believes that what people post and read on the internet they assume is true, even though there is no guarantee that it is as blogs and such sites are not professional news-sources. He feels that the sum of this situation is killing our culture, or at least important parts of it.

I also watched an interview of Keen’s with Adam Lashinksy, the author of Inside Apple. Inside Apple is a book about how Apple works, which is to say with great secrecy. Ironically, for a company that has had much great growth because of the internet and the culture associated with the net, Apple’s interior workings are very different that those of the internet. Where as the internet is sort of free running chaos, Apple sounds to much more rigid – each person has their task, and they do that task and nothing else. Very little other chit-chat happens in Apple, and employees do not talk about what they do. It is interesting, as this almost seems to be a culture Keen could want; everything has its place, and there are certain, reliable news sources that give information about the company. The contrast between Apple and the internet, and between Apple and its largest rival, Google, are quite interesting. Its culture is much less free to grow and develop as the cultures of Google or the Internet. However, a question is how will that culture survive without the driving personality of Steve Jobs.

Personally, I can seen Keen’s point. The analogy to the monkeys on typewriters, well being somewhat insulting, is rather accurate. The internet is full of so much… stuff, much of which is empty noise. The issue of how many people use blogs and sites like Wikipedia as a sort of new-source and take any information there as truth does create problems, especially in a system already rife with education problems as it is. However, his view that it is killing our culture does not strike a cord with me. Yes, the old culture is being replaced, slowly and surely, but that is the way of cultures; they shift and change as time moves on and the more rapid the changes in technology, the faster the change in culture. Yes, there are problems with how fast the culture is changing, as people try to fit into the culture and adapt to it, but it does not mean the change is bad, as keen’s view seems to say it is.