Andrew Keen’s new book, The Cult of the Amateur is the latest addition to the Newsnight book club. In it, the author expresses his concern for the profligacy of online amateurism, spawned by the digital revolution. This, he feels, has had a destructive impact on our culture, economy, and values. Web 2.0 is a state of play by which anyone generating content can share it with an audience of hundreds of thousands or even millions depending on its mass appeal.
Karina Stenquist of Mobuzz tv is confused by the notion of twitter as anything other than a means by which to distribute brainfarts, a term used by a few people. Do you remember Swatch and Swatch time? The idea was to create a universal timekeeping format which would be the same around the world. If something would happen at 128 then this would be a universal time and everyone would turn up.
When I’m online I love reading. I read articles everyday. I see what people are doing. I see what’s happening in the world through text. When I see some information that may be of interest to me in video form I’m lazy. I hardly ever bother watching that video. I’d much prefer to have the text version. I’ve often watched mobuzztv and Iused to enjoy watching the videos but recently I find myself watching them less and less, probably in part due to bandwidth constraints.