A great read over at The Register is Andrew Orlowski‘s interview with James Harkin, who has brought out a new book called Cyburbia (website for book here). It’s a refreshing and sober look at not only web2.0 but the people behind it.
The interview is full of great quotes – and there’s a piece of the book adapted here – but the one salient point that stuck out for me was this:
Large media companies are laying off good, seasoned journalists at the same time as they’re paying these internet gurus huge sums of money to talk rubbish about the medium.
It would be a shame if we abandoned seasoned journalists who are capable of researching and breaking stories, and capable of doing more than just simply going on Google, in favour of people who are simply obsessed with the medium. That’s the danger.
I know I can be as guilty as anyone for overhyping web2.0 – and I stand by my claim that if a large gathering of people is using a digital form then PR and marketing people have to be using it too – but this book looks to be a fantastic read – and I’m looking forward to getting my hands on it, if for no other reason than something a lot of the tech crowd forgets – only by challenging your assumptions and beliefs can you actually improve your arguments and reasoning.