Posts Tagged web 2.0
Andrew Keen on the death of Facebook and the future of the web
by Meghan Keane
Andrew Keen is a former entrepreneur who has since recanted his enthusiasm for Silicon Valley and come out as an outspoken opponent of Web 2.0. Keen is no stranger to controversy. His 2007 book “Cult of the Amateur” argued against the wisdom of crowds and he is known for incendiary commentary, like the time he likened Web 2.0 to a communist society or when he told Stephen Colbert that the Internet is worse than Nazism. In case you were wondering, here’s his definition of blogging: “It’s all about digital narcissism, shameless self-promotion. I find it offensive.”
Keen now writes at The Great Seduction, twitters @ajkeen, and speaks on a variety of topics. This week, Keen wrote that Facebook’s infusion of $200 million from Russian investors signaled “the final act of the Web 2.0 tragi-comedy.” We caught up with him via phone while he was in Alabama this week (“studying the natives”) to discuss the death of Web 2.0 and what comes next.
** Do you think that the formation of this “cult of the amateur” had anything to do with mainstream dissatisfaction with the “experts”?
I think there’s a strong cultural strain of fear and hostility towards experts and professionals. It’s a historic phenomenon, but it’s getting more and more prominent. With the Internet, the little people have the means to challenge the authorities. It’s another kind of rebellion.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Facebook, Interviews, Social Media on June 3rd, 2009
Is the Internet finally killing TV?
Reprinted from the Christian Science Monitor
Is this the summer that the Internet finally kills television as we once knew it? Most industry observers are stopping short of that prediction, citing some significant hurdles still in the way.
But the growing number of new deals and new devices being announced suggests that a profound change in the way people watch video — and what video they watch — is under way.
The line between “television” and video via the Internet already has blurred and may disappear in coming years.
At least one industry analyst has declared “TV is dead” and welcomes Americans to a new age of video everywhere.
Increasingly, Americans are watching video when they want to, and on the screen that suits them at the time. And more programming is from new sources that threaten to unlock Hollywood’s domination of content.
Video is now delivered on displays and devices of every shape and size, from gigantic theater screens and ever-larger home projector screens to flat-screen HDTVs and from desktop and laptop computer monitors to tiny personal screens such as those found on iPods and mobile phones.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Mobil, New Advertising Media on August 18th, 2008