Andrew Keen, Clay Shirky, Chris Anderson and company travel the globe debating the cultural transformations spawned by user generated content. As predicted in the writings of these authors, the debate does not conclude after microphones are unplugged. Instead, the discussion continues through a loosely connected array of blog posts, forum threads, YouTube clips, Flickr photos, etc.

For those seeking more active participation in debates surrounding citizen journalism, amateurism, crowdsourcing, or the numerous attached issues, Assignment Zero alum John Eischeid is launching The Cult of the Rebuttal. The collaborative project aims to compile a response to Keen’s diatribe against user generated content through a familiar method…you guessed it – user generated content. For initial guidance, Eischeid segmented the project into likely discussion topics via a blog template (The project also would function as a wiki or comment press site, but the blog works well for familiarity and aesthetics). The following topics are currently available:

* Should we blame the technology or those who use it?
* Analyze the economics.
* What have citizen journalists contributed?
* Investigate the notion of truth in journalism.
* To what extent is vanity also part of our culture?
* CNN – YouTube Presidential debates.
* The Wealth of Networks by Yochai Benkler
* Fact-checking
* Miscellany

Despite the explicit reference to Keen in the title, The Cult of the Rebuttal is constructed to function more as a repository for new media studies than as an attack on one specific work. Including a “Miscellany” section welcomes discussion of other relevant issues, and an additional literary section is already evident through Yochai Benkler’s “The Wealth of Networks.” Lawrence Lessig’s “Free Culture” and David Weinberger’s “Everything is Miscellaneous” would reside comfortably next to Benkler’s piece.

Hopefully an interesting community will develop surrounding The Cult of the Rebuttal, signaling another successful demonstration of an amateur fueled, crowdsourced, opinionative project. Somewhere Andrew Keen is cringing!