Monday, July 09, 2007

There is more happening around the discussion of expert authority in a web context. On this blog I still think it is worth repeating this, just to create a space where quality and learning can be seen as related. It is the view of distinct academic subjects that has been a block on this.

Today's post, actual through the letterbox hard copy stuff in cellophane, included Information World Review. Splash next to the front page title- "The Wicked Web 2.0 - Culture Killer" . This is a bit loaded. I have not given up on dialogue through Guardian Talk but have decided to concentrate on this blog. So in future most words will turn up here to avoid repeating things. But today, here is a copy from Guardian Talk

Information World Review has joined in the publicity for Andrew Keen's book. "A book is a fitting medium to argue for a reassessment" writes Mark Chillingworth. This is a very fair point. This stream of thought is coming from the print world. I am not sure Victor Keegan was right to say it represents any trend on the web.

In an interview, Keen says "We need to re-install a principle of authority. The mainstream media and experts can civilise the web."

Presumably Guardian journalists support this view of experts and mainstream media. Who knows? They rarely join in this sort of Talk.

I may continue to add to this topic but probably will kepp my own blog more updated

http://www.learn9.net

By the way, as far as I know there is no IWR review yet of "Everything is Miscellaneous" by David Weinberger. As mentioned before, this is a proper book. Continuous text with an index. Maybe this will have to wait for UK publication. The US version is now on Amazon UK.


Also similar points on the chatspace for NewsWireless. Guy Kewney recently wrote about the threat to journalism from user generated content on the web. However NewsWireless seems fairly open to contributions.

A printed version of Information World Review has arrived, dated for July and August. The opinions are a bit exetreme in my own view. Web 2.0 is linked with the words "wicked" and "culture killer". That is just the splash on the cover. The review of the book "The Cult of the Amateur" by Andrew Keen is headlined "The monkey cult destroying the temple of knowledge". It opens by comparing the web to "infinite monkeys ....perpetuating the cycle of misinformation and ignorance". The recent views in IT Week from Guy Kewney seem fair and balanced by comparison.

In an interview with Mark Chillingworth, Andrew Keen said "We need to re-install a principle of authority. The mainstream media and experts can civilise the web."

Strangely the same Mark Chillingworth writes an editorial about a recent discussion panel on Web 2.0. "My hat goes off to the information professionals....who put their hands in the air and admitted they didn't fully understand the technology and the issues it presented to their working lives."

So what sort of authority do they have? There could be some sort of dialogue with the people who have been using the web in ways now described as Web 2 or whatever.

I am not sure who finds this topic. There seem to several routes from the Newswireless pages. So here is a link to my own blog, which may be more likely to be updated-

http://www.learn9.net


Also there is a comment on the IWR blog. I don't think they have reviewed "Everything is Miscellaneous" as yet. If I'm wrong another comment should turn up.

I have previously come across the Information World Review mostly through the Online Information show. It now seems to put more emphasis on print than I had realised. The case made about "The Cult of the Amateur" seems to get attention just because it is in a book.

The Online Information show would be a good time to talk about online information.