Linked Knowledge: Rheingold, Weinberger, and the Challenges of the Web

Abstract

Recently two well-known authors in the field of digital media studies have addressed the issue of online knowledge from different points of view. They are Howard Rheingold, with Net Smart: How to Thrive Online (Rheingold, 2012), and David Weinberger, with Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Are not the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room is the Room (Weinberger, 2012). Since the two works were written almost at the same time, they do not contain references to each other. Nevertheless, both are apologies of the Internet, that are meant to defend it from increasing criticism coming from both scholars and common people.