The web - a powerful force for democracy, not

Andrew Keen really does seem to have tapped some sort of zeitgeist (as if he needs any more publicity for his book, The Cult of The Amateur). In his rather bleak vision, Keen says that online communities gather to confirm their own prejudices, while knowledge of history and literature is drowned in a flood of self-obsessed blogs.


The internet is maturing, so it's hardly surprising that it's becoming tainted with many of the problems of old media (as well as creating some new ones of its very own). The same old hierarchies are playing out, the same voices are dominating.


If a woman does rise to the top, she tends to be like Tila Tequila. If a black man gets profiled, he's probably a rapper (although it's true, Barack Obama does have 100,000 friends on MySpace).


Despite all pretensions otherwise, the dominant voice of the web is still too white, male, middle-class and middle-youth.


If you want to give me some support (or throw tomatoes), I'll be speaking on the social value (or not) of social networks at 11.30am next Wednesday, 13 June, at the NMK Forum.


Hopefully we'll get the chance to give Technical Change a plug.