Thursday, January 31, 2008

The Threat of Web 2.0

Rory Litwin at Library Juice reports on a speech by Jurgen Habermas on the perils of Web 2.0. Relevant quotes:
The price we pay for the growth in egalitarianism offered by the Internet is the decentralised access to unedited stories. In this medium, contributions by intellectuals lose their power to create a focus.
And in his report on the speech, Andrew Keen notes:
So the great achievement of the Web 2.0 is the undermining of the idea of a specialist, an expert, an intellectual.
So, is this repressive disintermediation? Or just anarchy? How much wikiality is there in such concerns? Not everything about Web 2.0 applies to Library 2.0, which encourages involvement but still has some central role for the library as institution. But there are valid cautionary notes.

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