A lot has been said about Andrew Keen’s new book, The Cult of the Amateur, in which he argues that the products of user-driven content communities (e.g., Wikipedia) often compare poorly to those produced by more traditional institutions.
Over at the Wikipedia Signpost, Wikipedia user Thespian opens his review of Andrew Keen’s new book with this quip:
One of the hardest parts of reading The Cult of the Amateur is the temptation to agree with the author, Andrew Keen. It’s tempting, when involved in an edit war, to pick up the book, read it, and say, “My god, he’s right! People who don’t have a clue are RUINING the Internet!”, before stepping back and realizing, he’s also talking about you.
For some reason, this reminds me of David Gerard‘s amusing (and doubtlessly true) note that
[M]assive collaboration is hard. The main problem is how to work with idiots you can’t get rid of, who consider you an idiot they can’t get rid of.
