Andrew Keen: how (most of us) are royally screwed

Dennis,

Thanks for sharing this video. I think you turned me on to Andrew's writings and I couldn't agree more that he is an important contrarian voice. I also really appreciate his willingness to not give a fuck. He gives it out straight. Perhaps the nicest thing I can say about Andrew is that he has always responded to my own replies to him on Twitter in a thoughtful manner that shows he is listening and also up to being challenged.

I tend to agree with a lot of Andrew's views but I do to think he overstates some things. In short, I view these trends in less absolute terms than he does. For example, Andrew tends to speak more longingly of "mainstream media" than I ever would. The media oligarchy, increasingly consolidated into a few corporate hands, is an oppressive voice that needs to be challenged.

Andrew is also wrong that it's simply a world of powerful social media superstars/celebrities and everybody else. I chug along on Twitter with my modest amount of followers because I am specialized in a vertical market segment - SAP in my case - and make connections within that market that are valuable to me. I could care less about the big social media dudes and I'm sure vice versa. Yet these tools empower me to make connections others who share my market interests. I know other self-publishers who have done the same thing and become prosperous, albeit in a modest sense, with vertical market plays of their own, speaking authentically in their own voice, not dependent on mass, amoral companies or monotone media outlets to get their message out. Being able to connect to vertical markets without having to go through the filtering of a mass media outlet is a great opportunity of this age for individuals who seize it. In prior decades you were much more dependent on the approval of larger institutions in order to get your word out, and you often became diluted along the way.

Finally, there are incidents to prove that these online communities can be powerful. The most recent presidential election, for one. The Facebook terms of service brouhaha, for another. What I would say to Andrew, though, is that this so-called grassroots power is not always a positive force. It has been used to organize neo-Nazi agitators and sympathizers, for example. But to deny the power of these new organizing mediums by predicting a world where a few superstars will dictate the terms of engagement strikes me as simplistic.

Having said this, that's what's great about Andrew's views. He provokes important debates and I really find his stuff provocative.

- Jon