A backlash is gathering pace against the naive belief in the wisdom of crowds and the inate righteousness of the Open Source movement. Jaron Lanier is one of the original new media thinkers – he is credited with popularising the term ‘virtual reality.’ In his new book, “You are not a gadget”, he criticises the impact of what he terms “hive thinking and “digital Maoism” – open source software, the belief in the rights of free access to creative content – on individual creativity.
Lanier also takes issue with the what reviewer John Tierney, in a great article in the New York Times, labels the “viscious pack behaviour on blogs, forums and social networks - the meanness of mobs.”
The Open Source/”free content for all” philosophy represents the first time since the days of Robin Hood, that the theft of other people’s property (creative content) has been allowed to assume the moral high ground. Lanier’s book is a smart reminder that even some of the most enlightened web minds, fear that this might prove to be a destructive force.