Jan 30, 2024
Andrew Keen visits Google to discuss his book “The Cult of the Amateur.” The book discusses the grave consequences of today’s new participatory internet and reveals how it threatens our values, economy, and ultimately the very innovation and creativity that forms the fabric of our societies.
According to Keen, our most valued cultural institutions are being
overtaken by an avalanche of amateur, user-generated free content.
Keen claims that “cut-and-paste” online culture, in which
intellectual property is freely swapped, downloaded, remashed, and
aggregated, threatens over 200 years of copyright protection and
intellectual property rights, preventing artists, authors,
journalists, musicians, and producers from earning a decent
living.
In today’s self-broadcasting culture, where amateurism is
celebrated and anyone with an opinion can publish a blog, post on
YouTube, or change an entry on Wikipedia, the distinction between
trained expert and uninformed amateur has become dangerously
blurred. When anonymous bloggers and videographers can alter the
public debate and manipulate public opinion, truth becomes a
commodity to be bought, sold, packaged, and reinvented.
The very anonymity that the Web 2.0 offers calls into question the
reliability of the information we receive and creates an
environment in which predators and identity thieves can roam free.
Keen’s book urges us to consider the consequences of blindly
supporting a culture that endorses plagiarism and piracy and that
fundamentally weakens traditional media and creative
institutions.
Originally published in June of 2007.
Visit
http://youtube.com/TalksAtGoogle/ to watch the video.