TEDxDanubia 2011 - Andrew Keen - Digital Vertigo

Andrew Keen is an entrepreneur and author. He is particularly known for his view that the Internet and Web 2.0 may be debasing culture. Keen is especially concerned that the Internet undermines the authority of learned experts. In 2006 in an essay in The Weekly Standard, Keen wrote that Web 2.0 is a "grand utopian movement" similar to "communist society" as described by Karl Marx. He describes Free Culture proponent Lawrence Lessig as an "intellectual property communist". His book The Cult of the Amateur, is critical of free, user-based Web sites such as Wikipedia that attempt to provide information. Keen discusses often-overlooked problems with participatory technology and describes the Internet as a mirror of our culture. "We see irreverence, and vitality, and excitement. We see a youthfulness. But we also see, I think, many of the worst developments in modern cultural life, and, in particular, I think we see what I call digital narcissism, this embrace of the self."

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

• Category

  Education

[Joe Parker]

I'm sure Andrew Keen is an interesting writer, but after about eight minutes I had to turn this off because a) he was taking ages to set up his argument; b) he kept staggering forwards and backwards nauseatingly (vertigo-inducing? Ahem.); and most importantly c) he was shouting, braying even, in a monotone that just made my ears bleed.

[Unbihexium]

The problem of the network(s) is the mediation of information, the digital survillance. All your data - more and more your "self" - is mediated, and can be analysed, processed, modified, aggregated, etc. The danger is not in revealing too much about yourself, but the exploitation of the system in the interest of the data owners (states, companies). There is of course no problem with "trusted communities".

[beyoncelover202]

I take it none of the people who liked the speech have ever studied history or sociology or anything that is happening in modern society. bravo internet minion, bravo.

[bssb1979]

You don't have a wife? No shit.

Anyway, the best part of the talk begins at 18:32.

[mike riddell]

"Visibility is a trap". Such nonsense. By ceding one's right's to a trusted community vehicle such as a cooperative it is possible to remain protected and simultaneously leverage the value of that data for oneself and one's community. By volunteering the information one re-establishes the links between contribution and entitlement.

[A3DFX]

...and not one shred of evidence to support the causal relationship between socialism and visibility online

[670Kiester]

Well..in my opinion..an excellent and accurate speech, bravo!