cnn this morning

Gee, do you think it just might be because a product being “non-amateur” (i.e. a second-hand product now owned by a corporation rather than the original creator) doesn’t actually guarantee *quality*? Could creative product that is “released” (i.e. “escapes from”) corporate shops actually *suffer* by the process of “professional” productization?
This is unlikely to be a popular concept with RIAA member companies…or a certain unnnamed software house fond of publicly sneering at “hobbyist” developers. Disintermediation isn’t usually thought highly of by paid intermediaries. 🙂

In my very humble opinion,
Nowadays, you have to get “online” to be “in line” with things that are happening in real time. The trickle down of inked news onto paper is passing.
My local paper that used to be thick with advertisements is now too thin to roll up and swat flies with. In past years, the backpage boasted colorful display ads of available real estate, now it is a full page ad for graveyard plots. I guess in a sense that still may be considered real estate.

Your last statement really rings true. Amateurs have been given an increasing voice every time there is a development in communication. There has never been a world without widely professed and baseless opinions being broadcast as fact.
As I said in a recent blog post . . .
“This isn’t really a new problem. I’m sure people said many of the same things about the printing press, the radio and television. They probably said the same things about the public address system (He’s so loud. Everyone will thing he’s right).”
There might even have been backlash against the first chisels. After all, they allowed any idiot with a hammer the ability to permanently record their thoughts.
The burden of discovering truth lies on the reader, the listener or the watcher. If you believe every stupid thing you read online than who is at fault? The writers? Or you for failing to check “facts”? Everyone has a right to express an opinion, but it doesn’t mean you have to buy it.
Lastly, a quote to illustrate the point . . .
“If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.”
~Author unknown, commonly attributed to Mark Twain or Thomas Jefferson

I just read the online excerpt of Andrew Keen’s book, and I must say: it was surprisingly uninsightful.
Hugh — as usual — nailed it.

I feel a sense of fear in what Andrew is saying. Very much like the fear of losing the self pride I’ve seen people back home have in India’s ‘culture’. If it’s really quality that he cares for, it will take care of itself. It’s quality that makes me read gapingvoid everyday. Although there are millions of blogs online, it’s only a handful I read regularly – again, reason being top quality. Bad writing has always been around. It’s just that the numbers have shot up now. Even so, it’s still down to individual discernment.
As with any new thing, it’s easy to criticise and resist it. But it does take some effort and talent to be with it and create some positive contribution.
I guess what Keen’s brought to our attention is generation gap 2.0.

In the past we confused the scarcity of access to media with scarcity of talent. I heard better musicians in the Tube than I saw on The Tube, blogging is just that writ large.