Geert Lovink on Web 2.0 trends, real-time colonization, national webs, comment culture & extreme opinions

On Eurozine,  Geert Lovink examines the colonization of real-time; comment culture and the rise of extreme opinions; and the emergence of "national webs".

Web 2.0 has three distinguishing features: it is easy to use; it facilitates the social element; and users can upload their own content in whatever form, be it pictures, videos or text. It is all about providing users with free publishing and production platforms. The focus on how to make a profit from free user-generated content came in response to the dotcom crash. At the height of dotcom mania all attention was focused on e-commerce. Users were first and foremost potential customers. They had to be convinced to buy goods and services online. This is what was supposed to be the New Economy. In 1998 the cool cyberworld of geeks, artists, designers and small entrepreneurs got bulldozed overnight by "the suits": managers and accountants who were after the Big Money provided by banks, pension funds and venture capital. With the sudden influx of business types, hip cyberculture suffered a fatal blow and lost its avant-garde position for good. In a surprising turn of events, the hyped-up dotcom entrepreneurs left the scene equally fast when, two years later, the New Economy bubble burst. Web 2.0 cannot be understood outside of this context: as the IT sector takes over the media industry, the cult of "free" and "open" is nothing but ironic revenge on the e-commerce madness. more…

Lovink is the founding director of the Institute of Network Cultures and blog as "net critique". He is a media theorist, net critic and activist and has authored many books : Dark Fiber. Tracking Critical Internet Culture (2002), Uncanny Networks. Dialogues with the Virtual Intelligentsia (2002), My First Recession. Critical Internet Culture in Transition (2003), The Principle of Notworking (PDF) (2005), and Zero Comments: Blogging and Critical Internet Culture (2007).

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