Far from setting humanity free,the web is ceding power to a few giant companies, argues Andrew Keen in this sobering studyAndrew Keen’s thoughtful “state of the internet” address divided plenty of opinion when it was published in hardback at the start of 2015 – and much of the disagreement came from one striking juxtaposition. The famous web 2.0 sceptic noted that while photography company Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection in 2012, and shedding 47000 jobs and turning once thriving places such as Rochester,NY, into ghost towns, and the photosharing app Instagram – with just 13 full-time employees and no discernible revenue or indeed trade contrivance – was sold to Facebook for a staggering $1bn.
The kneejerk response was and still is – “well,that’s progress”. Tough on Kodak’s employees, but 150 million people uploading 55m photos can’t be wrong. This is how life works in the always-on moment decade of the 21st century. Keen, or then,must be a luddite.
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Source: theguardian.com