DigitalHoax: If we are all amateurs, there are no experts.

Peter Steiner 1993

Before the internet it seemed like a joke: if you provide an infinite number of monkeys with typewriters one of them will eventually come up with a masterpiece. But with the web now firmly established in its second evolutionary phase – in which users create the content on blogs, podcasts and streamed video – the infinite monkey theory doesn’t seem so funny anymore.

John-Paul Flintoff

The expansion of the Internet and the rise of user generated content websites gave people almost unlimited possibilities to express and share their opinions and thoughts with others. Wikipedia became one of the most popular websites, although the value of its content is often questioned. Everyone can create a new entry or contribute to it. In comparison, encyclopaedia Britannica was ranked 5,128 in 2007 in the list of most visited sites. It is creating an information noise, and is getting more and more difficult to select and even find information we are interested in. This huge stream is not necessarily a bad thing however it is not controlled in any way and it just getting bigger and bigger. And as Flintoff points out instead of creating masterpieces, the millions of exuberant monkeys are creating an endless digital forest of mediocrity: uninformed political commentary, unseemly home videos, embarrassingly amateurish music, unreadable poems, essays and novels. It is creating an information noise, and is getting more and more difficult to select and even find information we are interested in. This huge stream is not necessarily a bad thing however it is not controlled in any way and it just getting bigger and bigger.

Not everyone is talented or posses required level of expertise yet in the Internet there are no restriction. This is its beauty and its curse. Let assume you need a surgical treatment and you live in the world where everyone can be a surgeon. There are well qualified surgeons that graduated medical schools and have x years of experience and we have wannabe surgeons, who have no experience or relevant knowledge. Who would be your choice? However, you can find many good artists who, if not the Internet, they would not be able to attract any audience. The Internet allowed them to become independent from media moguls and their power. Unfortunately, this massive amount of wannabe stars makes finding those gems a real challenge in today’s Web 2.0 world.

Chris Anderson defined the concept of Long Tail that states that our economy and culture is shifting from mass markets to million of niches. It chronicles the effect of the technologies that have made it easier for consumers to find and buy niche products, thanks to the "infinite shelf-space effect"--the new distribution mechanisms, from digital downloading to peer-to-peer markets that break through the bottlenecks of broadcast and traditional bricks and mortar retail. Andrew Keen in his book “The Cult of the Amateur” states that the more self-created content that gets dumped onto the Internet, the harder it becomes to distinguish the good from the bad – and to make money from any of it.

You don’t have to be expert to produce a valuable or interesting post or piece of music. The Internet sometimes is the only chance to some talented amateurs to present their skills and talents. Sites like YouTube and MySpace provided a great platform to people and artists to gain popularity. There will always be amateurs and experts, although the latter are slowly being suppressed by the former.