Any questions for Andrew Keen?

Next month I'm moderating a discussion with Andrew Keen at the Frontline Club. His book, The Cult of the Amateur: how the internet is killing our culture and assaulting our economy, seems to arouse strong feelings and touch raw nerves. Feel free to offer suggestions for questions or areas of discussion.

Here he is talking to David Weinberger at Supernova a few weeks ago - just to give you a flavour.

Comments

[Alex Murray]

Please feel free to ask him who it was that told us that the Iguanadon had a spike on its head? As far as I can recall, it was experts. Or who it was that told us that the Hitler Diaries were genuine? Oh that was experts too. His central thesis is ultimately empty polemic.

[Steve Petersen]

I would like to know how trust affects the development and perpetuation of the "cult of the amateur."

For instance, a distrust of the mainstream media to accurately or fairly report the news partly fuels the political blogosphere, which is full of amateurs. On a more interesting note concerning trust, religious conservatives -- many of whom are amateurs -- created Conservapedia since they felt that Wikipedia and traditional reference sources like encyclopedias have a liberal slant.

Therefore, should traditional media creators bolster their trust with the public in order to mitigate a major motivation for amateurs to act as arbiters of news and information?

[Charlie Beckett]

Dear Richard,
Having attended a discussion group with Andrew I have to say that he is difficult to take seriously. He voices a lot of fears that people have, but they are about modern life as much as the internet. When you ask him to explain he denies that he meant what he wrote and is 'only seeking to create a stir and sell books' I have no problem with debating Andrew but I think he is asking questions about a different problem that the internet never claimed to solve.
I blogged about the event here:
http://www.charliebeckett.org/?p=192
have fun,
Charlie Beckett