Globalization and its e-(dis)contents

I'm in Northern Europe all of next week, speaking about globalization, culture and media. For the first part of the week, I'll be in Belgium and Holland, celebrating the release of the Dutch language version of Cult (note the orange and purple monkey cover -- an excellent pictorial representation of the long tail concept), published by the distinguished house of Meulenhoff. I'll be doing press and television in Brussels all day on Monday, then in Amsterdam from Tuesday to Thursday to do more media, lecture at the university and hopefully having time to wander around that magical city. My trip will also coincide with the broadcast of "Wiki's Waarheid", a documentary program about Wikipedia made by the public Dutch tv broadcast company VPRO/Tegenlicht. This show features extensive interviews with both Jimmy Wales and myself and promises to be a particularly intelligent investigation of the whole wiki-brouhaha.

In Amsterdam, I'm particularly honored to be giving the 21st Felix Meritis lecture on Globalization on Tuesday evening at the European Center for Arts and Sciences. Previous speakers in the series include Joseph Stiglitz, Tariq Ramadan, Naomi Klein, Tariq Ali and Tom Friedman. The speech will give me an opportunity to critically explore the way in which Web 2.0 revolution is impacting upon the developing countries of the South.

On Thursday, I fly to Helsinki, where I'm keynoting the Helsinki International Media Conference first thing on Friday morning. This is a fabulous sounding event and I'm thrilled that one fellow speaker is the legendary Norwegian journalist Asne Seierstadt, the author of the Bookseller of Kabul and the upcoming Angel of Grozny.

It promises to be a great week. Please email me (ak@ajkeen.com) if you want to get together in either Brussels, Amsterdam or Helsinki.

Comments

[Roland Pelle]

Hello mister Keen,
I read your interview in the Dutch newspaper "de Volkskrant".
In 2003 I started a weekly newspaper (print) for kids between 11 and 15 years in The Netherlands.
It will take too much of your time to tell you the whole story, but on the 24th of April we will have our 5th anniversary.
I totally agree with your points of view according to the internet. Especially journalists should take stand against this crazy idea that everything must be free. Good and trustworthy information will always cost money and we need specialists to analyze it and bring it in understandable articles and opinions.
We should stand firm and think and work according to our own believes and opinions. Otherwise we will leave a world behind in which our children cannot trust any kind of information. Whether the information is true and what the consequences will be for their lives and future. Hope to be able to hear you speak in Amsterdam.
Kind regards,

Roland Pelle
Publisher Kidsweek

[Bart Hermsen]

Hello,
I am watching the VPRO show right now and eventho i have to say that i not totally agree with your point of view on the internet, i really like the term 'digital narcissism'. I am a teacher and i see my students being more and more online on profile websites and telling me they 'know' a lot of people. What troubles me about that, is that they do have more contact, but the quality of the contact is a lot 'flatter'.

thanks for the nice show 'Tegenlicht'.

bart hermsen

[Arne Appelmelk]

L.S.

I watched you at the tv broadcast Tegenlicht and was impressed by your views. I have however two questions:

You referred to Ayn Rand in a negative way as inspirer for the collective Wikipedia and especially one of it's founders. Isn't Ayn Rand as an inspirer for individuals rather then collectives based on skills developed first by working hard and learning from the best teachers so that one can develope an own original talent?

I found a Youtube-speech where you talk to a gathering of Googlers. Is it a hoax? I didn't understand your almost apologizing intro and didn't watch it out.

P.S.

This ideology of internet as an equalizer is a real threat for excellence. It is inspired by postmodernism (social constructivism) and an alternative for the disappointed marx/leninist generation that had/have big influence in the internet and educational development. I'm a mathteacher and am confronted next week with a course at my school called "Einstein generation". The philosophy of this course: Our students are all young Einsteins with a new skill called "multitasking" and teachers lost their grip because their students are smarter being experts in how to use internet. Also their brain has changed by the way they use these new media. An American inspirer is Prensky - "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants". The horror.... But I will go and try to defeat these gurus of the complete nonsense. Have you ever read Robert Hughes -"The Culture of complaint"? It has become a book that sooths my pain reading parts after every time I'm confronted with these delusions. Greetings,

Arne Appelmelk

Meppel

The Netherlands

[Nescio]

Is there any difference between the internet and let's say 90 percent of the books, newspapers, radio or television programs? These things will always be the same. Make your own choice and think for yourself, whatever they tell you.

Kind regards,

Nescio

[Julian Baldwin]

I subscribed to you not because I like or agree with your point of views, but you offer an alternative opinion.

[Geoffrey]

How refreshing to hear your comments on Tegenlicht/ Backlight. Having spent two years studying much postmodern 'media studies' poo haa - much of it focussed on delving into conspiracy theories and trying to level the gatekeeper role of journalists to those who write whatever they feel should be true - I was looking forward for someone voicing your kind of views as to update a rational/reasonable counter sound. Count me in for buying your book - though I have to admit that I will do so through Amazon.

Regards, Geoffrey

ps. I would recommend you watching Tegenlicht's 'Democratie voor beginners/ Democracy for beginners'(2004) with Fareed Zakaria as it elaborates on similar themes as yours - yet more politically.

[Chad Bates]

Web 2.0 is the only way to go to gain huge targeted traffic to your websites.