Cult of the Amateur Review by Larry Sanger

TOPICS: Communications. Cult of the Amateur book review. Internet. Web 2.0 technology. Cult of the Amateur book by Andrew Keen. Larry Sanger, Citizendium book review. Wikipedia. YouTube. Marketing communications issues. Implications of growth of social networking and user generated content on existing media sources. Larry Sanger of Citizendium reviews 'Cult of the Amateur' book by Andrew Keen.

Ian Johnson, Out Now
July 20, 2007

One of the more talked about communications books of the moment is the Andrew Keen commentary on Web 2.0 technologies - Cult of the Amateur.

The book cites Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia - and now founder of the Wikipedia rival Citizendium - favorably. Keen argues that Citizendium is to be preferred to Wikipedia as representing a 'third way' to progress the communication of knowledge as new technology radically changes the communications landscape for all.

The rise of social networking sites such as Facebook, Pownce, MySpace; user generated content upload sites such as YouTube and Flickr - as well as the rise of sites like Wikipedia - has seen a radical shift in the communications landscape in recent years.

Gay Market News commented on the 'Cult of the Amateur' book back before its release, and reactions to the book, from traditional media and the web 2.0 blogosphere, have been dynamic to say the least.

Now, the founder of Citizendium, Larry Sanger - whose expert-edited Citizendium encyclopaedia is cited favourably in Keen's 'Cult of the Amateur' as a preferable online knowledge alternative to Wikipedia - has posted a review of the book online.

Wikipedia is often criticised for its open architecture allowing anyone, even those with no specific expert knowledge, to edit the encyclopaedia online as an anonymous contributor.

But while Citizendium is seen as a worthy entrant to the field of online knowledge based wikis - it is however apparently slow to take off, something that Larry Sanger had initially said was to be expected.

Andrew Keen has just been interviewed online about Cult of the Amateur by one of his web 2.0 critics Blogcritics.com writer Scott Butki.

There are some very interesting points about the strengths and weaknesses of the Andrew Keen 'Cult of the Amateur' book contained in Larry Sanger's review. Here is an extract:

Review of Keen’s “Cult of the Amateur”
July 17, 2007 - Larry Sanger, Citizendium blog

The Blogosphere is up in arms about Andrew Keen’s new book, The Cult of the Amateur. He deliberately sets out to tweak the mavens of Web 2.0 — and he succeeds. This is great fun, because said mavens often have all the self-righteousness of revolutionaries, at least when it comes to the virtues of Web 2.0, and are thus eminently tweakable.

Keen decries everything he imagines is wrong with the Internet. He especially abhors the mediocre work of amateurs. Free but substandard work is apparently destroying whole industries, particularly our culture industries. He hates the fact that so much work on the Internet today is collaborative and distributed. The so-called wisdom of crowds is itself an “extraordinary popular delusion,” he says; the best work comes from the individual, professional mind.

The book is provocative, but its argument is unfortunately weakened by the fact that Keen is so over-the-top and presents more of a caricature of a position than carefully-reasoned discourse. Still, maybe a bit of deliberate provocation is needed. Something more staid might not generate as lively a reaction or get people talking about issues that badly need to be discussed.

In short, the book is a much-needed Web 2.0 reality check.

How successful is Keen’s argument? A brief review can’t do more than give a taste, because Keen rails against many things. The eponymous “cult of the amateur” is perhaps his main target. The problem with Web 2.0, however, isn’t the prevalence of amateurs. Indeed, I see little proof that amateur, user-generated content is threatening the jobs of professionals.

But Keen denies being a Luddite. The book’s final chapter is a curiosity. “Digital technology is a miraculous thing” — he says after having explained how many Internet phenomena are less than miraculous — “giving us the means to globally connect and share knowledge in unprecedented ways.”

The first example of a “solution” he offers is the Citizendium, or the Citizens’ Compendium, which I like to describe briefly as Wikipedia with editors and real names. But how can Citizendium be a solution to the problems he raises, if it has experts working without pay, and the result is free? If it succeeds, won’t it contribute to the decline of reference publishing?

Free content, volunteerism, collaboration, anonymity, and decentralization make Web 2.0 a “miraculous thing” — and we are quickly discovering that the miracle can be had without the “cult of the amateur.” Keen himself seems to admit this. But if so, maybe he’s not such a reactionary after all.

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