Andrew Keen, in his The Cult of the Amateur: How today’s Internet is killing our culture, uses as evidence for the fact that the “democratic”, “flat” Internet is run by a kabbalah of insiders the article The Wizards of Buzz, published by Wall Street Journal a while back. The article argues that a disproportionate number of Digg and social bookmarking site submissions are made by a selected number of users. While the article does not go as far as to suggest any malfeasance, it does highlight the fact that in the Web 2.0 universe some users are more equal than others. I would argue that Keen’s observation, while in large measure astute and valid, looks for conspiracies when it should ask the much more daring question. Is the Internet natively far less egalitarian than it is believed? It might very well be. After all, it is a well known fact that less than 2.5% of Wikipedia’s editors made as of 2004 about 50% of its contributions. What theory might explain this? Well, for this we need to look into something quite different… And I have an idea. More, soon.
