I’ve been reading a lot of diatribes lately about how Web 2.0 has turned the web from an instantly accessible, twenty-four hour public library (without the fines), into a theme park of trivia for the constantly connected world of Generation ‘M’. It’s an easy argument: the dumbed-down, distracted, Google-stupid generation whose Digital Rights have so produced half a billion ‘faces’ stalking each other through the eyes of Mark Zuckerberg, downloaded Hollywood Blockbusters adding to excess charges on bandwidth limits, and ‘We’ve got Talent’ Karaoke performances uploaded to YouTube saving the talent scouts endless bus journeys.

Although there is some truth in these argument, they are most often overstated. The counter arguments – the power of networks and networked publics to affect change, the tools that allow sharing, collaboration and innovation, the range of our augmented consciousnesses … etc. all sound a bit dry really. Even Wikipedia, awe-inspiring in its scope and lack of profit motive, is unlikely to make you teary-eyed.

So when I read that: ‘To date over 250,000 people from 172 countries have participated in an online project to construct Johnny Cash’s final music video’, I thought ‘another rather grey, inspiring-but-emotionless piece of crowd-sourcing’.

Then, I started watching … and got teary-eyed.