It Didn’t Last Long, Thankfully: The Beginning of the End for Wiki March 23, 2008

Newsweek reports

By any name, the current incarnation of the Internet is known for giving power to the people. Sites like YouTube and Wikipedia collect the creations of unpaid amateurs while kicking pros to the curb—or at least deflating their stature to that of the ordinary Netizen. But now some of the same entrepreneurs that funded the user-generated revolution are paying professionals to edit and produce online content. In short, the expert is back. The revival comes amid mounting demand for a more reliable, bankable Web. “People are beginning to recognize that the world is too dangerous a place for faulty information,” says Charlotte Beal, a consumer strategist for the Minneapolis-based research firm Iconoculture. Beal adds that choice fatigue and fear of bad advice are creating a “perfect storm of demand for expert information.”

I especially liked this bit-

 ”Nobody wants to advertise next to crap,” says Andrew Keen, author of “The Cult of the Amateur,” a jeremiad against the ills of the unregulated Web.

I don’t know who this Andrew Keen is, but I like him! Even biblical studies and theology have been infected by the ‘cult of the amateur’ and we have all paid the price for it- with stuff like Simcha and Cameron’s nonsense as just one example among hundreds.

Read the rest, and toss a bit of dirt on Wiki’s grave while you’re at it. Good riddance… It couldn’t happen to a more useless enterprise.

[With thanks to Soren Holst for the tip].