MappingTheWeb //

This first coming of Armageddon was successfully thwarted by Ben Affleck and Bruce Willis. Very heroic. Now, Andy Rutledge believes that Armageddon 2.0 is upon us…

This modern-day Nostradamus is predicting the crumble of the new web as we know it. His doomsday words have touched a chord with numerous bloggers, including Mathew Ingram. Other cynics, such as Nick Carr and Andrew Keen, have echoed similar views, but not without much disagreement from the ‘web 2.0′ community.

I appreciate these alternative views and skepticism with regard to new web trends and technologies, but I do not believe they are merited. My belief is that these individuals engage in argumentary discussions for personal reasons and self-exposure.

The criticisms of Rutledge spawn from social media. He believes that if everyone contributes and collaborates, only mediocrity will emerge. His thought is that greatness stems from a few elite and that diluting this talent will hinder productivity and development. It is my belief that he oversees an important point. If these ‘mobs’ or ‘masses’ can be focused in a specific direction with some level of co-ordination and guidance from a select group of educators and tech innovators, then social media can work and succeed.

Why has Wikipedia been so successful? Why is it so accurate? The dynamic nature of wikis and real-time collaboration enable any site or live document to move toward 100% accuracy levels. Though this level will never be reached, the site will benefit greatly with every additional user/contributor. Essentially, the network becomes more and more valuable. Crowdsourcing is a powerful thing.

Andy is living in his own little anti-web 2.0 echo-chamber. He needs to break out and witness the power and potential of these trends and concepts. They are here to stay.