My Review of "Here Comes Everybody", continued:
I want to share more observations about Here Comes Everybody:The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky, summarizing what I think are the most important ideas to take from this book. At this point I hope that readers of this blog have had their curiosity piqued and want to check the book out for themselves.
Welcome to my blog!
My name is Bud Harris and I am a graduate student at the University of Alabama pursuing a Master's Degree in the Interactive Technology through the Institute of Interactive Technology.
Search This Blog
Who is Clay Shirky?
Visit this link to learn more about Clay Shirky.
Relevant Links
Followers
Blog Archive
About Me
- Bud Harris
- Grady, South Montgomery County, Alabama, United States
- I teach drafting & design technology skills within the Alabama Community College System. My first degree is a Bachelor of Architecture Degree from Auburn University. I also have a Master's Degree in Post-secondary Education (with a concentration in instructional technology) from Troy University. I am currently working toward another graduate degree at the University of Alabama offered through the College of Human Environmental Sciences specializing in Interactive Technology. I am married to Veronique L. Harris and have two daughters, Maddie and Emma-Claire.
Chapter Highlites from Here Comes Everybody
Chapter 1: It Takes a Village to Find a Phone
New tools have made it easier for for groups to assemble and work productively without an administrative hierarchy. They are accomplishing their goals outside of and independent of previously established parameters.
Individuals, working collectively by exploiting the power of social media applications available over the internet, are actually are coercing established institutions (the NYPD bends in Shirky's account of the Ivanna's loss and return of her $300 Sidekick phone....... you have to get the book and read this OR you can read a first-hand account here) to acquiesce to the desires of the group.
The big point Shirky makes in the first chapter is made through a metaphor comparing the ability people have today (through the technology enabling social media applications available through the media of the World Wide Web) to assemble, organize, and act in unprecendented ways to a tectonic shift. Geologically, tectonic shifts separate land masses into separate continets, lift mountains, and do other things to change the terrain.
Plainly, Clay Shirky says that what is happening is world-changing.
Chapter 2: Sharing Anchors Community
Sharing is a native and basic desire of people, Shirky asserts. New tools for communicating over the Internet are conveniently meeting those desires, and communities are formed by groups desiring to share particular things (such as photos on Flickr).
Sharing anchors these communities making it possible for cooperation, collaboration, and collective action toward realizing a group effort. In fact, Shirky metaphorically refers to these activities as rungs on a ladder. On page 49, he says;
On page 55, we find this reading;
Chapter 3: Everyone is a Media Outlet
Building on the observation that it is ridiculously easy to form groups by virtue of new social tools, Shirky states that "everyone is a media outlet". Well, everyone certainly can be. . . .. this blog demonstrates that. I can make the blog available to as many people as I want to and as many people that care to can respond, or at least follow it.
The ability for me to go to www.blogger.com and set up a weblog for free has removed an old obstacle to publicly expressing my thoughts and views. This capability, multiplied by as many individuals who are exercising it, is drastically impacting and changing established media outlets previously reserved for professionals; that is, newspapers, periodicals, and radio and television broadcasting.
The realm of professional media outlets is being forced to recognize and contend with the mass amateurization of publishing. On page 60, Shirky says;
I wonder what the future repercussions of this will be and how these new tools are shaping culture. Something Shirky writes on page 73 causes me to consider these things.
There is never going to be a moment when we as a society ask ourselves, "Do we want this? Do we want the changes that the new flood of production and access and spread of information is going to bring about? It has already happened; in many ways, the rise of group forming networks is best viewed not as an invention but as an event, a thing that has happened in the world that can't be undone.
Chapter 4: Publish, then Filter
Shirky's title for this chapter certainly seems to be the rule among those who are rapidly becoming a part of the Web 2.0 phenomena of social media and social networking (blogs, wikis, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). As participants, we rely on fellow members in these communities to help filter our contributions, whether we are conscious of this or not.
I was introduced to social media apps about the middle of the 2009 Spring semester (my first) in the Interactive Technology program at the University of Alabama. I remember the invitation from Michelle Hale (a recent graduate from the program) to a Facebook page for graduate students enrolled int the program and I accepted the invitation. I now have over 175 "FB" friends. I "tweet" on Twitter occasionally. I have this blog, too. What's next? Whatever technologies that are out there on the horizon that helps me communicate more effectively (and immediately) with friends, colleagues, and other people are tools I am willing to try. In my enthusiam, I will publish first, then filter my content through fellow community members who will hopefully read what I post.
Shirky maintains that "user-generated content is a group phenomenon, and an amateur one. When people talk about user-generatede content, they are describing the ways that users create and share media with one another, with no professionals anywhere in sight. Seen this way the idea of user-generated content is actually not just a personal theory of creative capabilities but a social theory of media relations" (pp.83,84).
What indicators would comprise a social theory of relations in regard to new social media apps? How is human behavior being translated across this new revolution in social interaction (Shirky comments about the coevolution of technology and society on page 105)? How does ettiquette change? What lines are being crossed? How is this revolution changing established rules?
The big important idea to consider in this chapter (to me, anyway) is on page 87;
Chapter 5: Personal Motivation Meets Collaborative ProductionThe epitome (in the digital age we are experiencing now) of personal motivation meeting collaborative production is Wikipedia. Shirky devotes this chapter to the conception, growth, and meaning of Wikipedia (an online free content encyclopedia that anyone can edit and contribute to) within the context of how digital tools and applications are amplifying how people converge, communicate, and collaborate.
Wikipedia is one of the largest (if not the largest) and most successful working wikis on the World Wide Web. "A wiki is a hybrid of tool and community" (p.136).
The main ideas Shirky puts forth in chapter 5 about Wikipedia (and personal motivation meeting collaborative production) address
1) Wikipedia's content: after sharing several examples of how Wikipedia addresses different subject entries, he makes a point that there are "hundreds of thousands of articles whose value is both relied on and improved daily" (p.115). Why is this so? A block quote on page 116, from an early essay on the growth of Wikipedia by cofounder Larry Sanger;
2) Unmanaged Division of Labor: Shirky explains that "a Wikipedia article is a process, not a product, and as a result, is never finished" (p.119). He also state that the key to the success of a wiki is that it can take a "staggering amount of input with a minimum of overhead"(p. 120). Participants are free to contribute as much as they want or as little as they want. Eventually, something of substance emerges.
3) A Predictable Imbalance: Shirky explains an important aspect of social media apps and the interaction users get with other users. The most frequent contributors (really active users) are going to get the most interaction. On the surface, this sounds so simple and not very profound, but it is. He illustrates this through power law distributions, in particular the "long tail" variety.
New tools have made it easier for for groups to assemble and work productively without an administrative hierarchy. They are accomplishing their goals outside of and independent of previously established parameters.
Individuals, working collectively by exploiting the power of social media applications available over the internet, are actually are coercing established institutions (the NYPD bends in Shirky's account of the Ivanna's loss and return of her $300 Sidekick phone....... you have to get the book and read this OR you can read a first-hand account here) to acquiesce to the desires of the group.
The big point Shirky makes in the first chapter is made through a metaphor comparing the ability people have today (through the technology enabling social media applications available through the media of the World Wide Web) to assemble, organize, and act in unprecendented ways to a tectonic shift. Geologically, tectonic shifts separate land masses into separate continets, lift mountains, and do other things to change the terrain.
Plainly, Clay Shirky says that what is happening is world-changing.
Chapter 2: Sharing Anchors Community
Sharing is a native and basic desire of people, Shirky asserts. New tools for communicating over the Internet are conveniently meeting those desires, and communities are formed by groups desiring to share particular things (such as photos on Flickr).
Sharing anchors these communities making it possible for cooperation, collaboration, and collective action toward realizing a group effort. In fact, Shirky metaphorically refers to these activities as rungs on a ladder. On page 49, he says;
You can think of group undertaking as a kind of ladder of activities, activities that are enabled or improved by social tools. The rungs on the ladder, in order of difficulty, are sharing, cooperation, and collective action.
On page 55, we find this reading;
The essential advantage created by new social tools has been labeled "ridiculously easy group-forming" by the social scientist Seb Paquet.Now that the means of group-forming are so easy, they are being intensely experimented with.
Chapter 3: Everyone is a Media Outlet
Building on the observation that it is ridiculously easy to form groups by virtue of new social tools, Shirky states that "everyone is a media outlet". Well, everyone certainly can be. . . .. this blog demonstrates that. I can make the blog available to as many people as I want to and as many people that care to can respond, or at least follow it.
The ability for me to go to www.blogger.com and set up a weblog for free has removed an old obstacle to publicly expressing my thoughts and views. This capability, multiplied by as many individuals who are exercising it, is drastically impacting and changing established media outlets previously reserved for professionals; that is, newspapers, periodicals, and radio and television broadcasting.
The realm of professional media outlets is being forced to recognize and contend with the mass amateurization of publishing. On page 60, Shirky says;
The future presented by the internet is the mass amateurization of publishing and a switch from "Why publish this?" to "Why not?"
I wonder what the future repercussions of this will be and how these new tools are shaping culture. Something Shirky writes on page 73 causes me to consider these things.
There is never going to be a moment when we as a society ask ourselves, "Do we want this? Do we want the changes that the new flood of production and access and spread of information is going to bring about? It has already happened; in many ways, the rise of group forming networks is best viewed not as an invention but as an event, a thing that has happened in the world that can't be undone.
Chapter 4: Publish, then Filter
Shirky's title for this chapter certainly seems to be the rule among those who are rapidly becoming a part of the Web 2.0 phenomena of social media and social networking (blogs, wikis, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). As participants, we rely on fellow members in these communities to help filter our contributions, whether we are conscious of this or not.
I was introduced to social media apps about the middle of the 2009 Spring semester (my first) in the Interactive Technology program at the University of Alabama. I remember the invitation from Michelle Hale (a recent graduate from the program) to a Facebook page for graduate students enrolled int the program and I accepted the invitation. I now have over 175 "FB" friends. I "tweet" on Twitter occasionally. I have this blog, too. What's next? Whatever technologies that are out there on the horizon that helps me communicate more effectively (and immediately) with friends, colleagues, and other people are tools I am willing to try. In my enthusiam, I will publish first, then filter my content through fellow community members who will hopefully read what I post.
Shirky maintains that "user-generated content is a group phenomenon, and an amateur one. When people talk about user-generatede content, they are describing the ways that users create and share media with one another, with no professionals anywhere in sight. Seen this way the idea of user-generated content is actually not just a personal theory of creative capabilities but a social theory of media relations" (pp.83,84).
What indicators would comprise a social theory of relations in regard to new social media apps? How is human behavior being translated across this new revolution in social interaction (Shirky comments about the coevolution of technology and society on page 105)? How does ettiquette change? What lines are being crossed? How is this revolution changing established rules?
The big important idea to consider in this chapter (to me, anyway) is on page 87;
Chapter 5: Personal Motivation Meets Collaborative ProductionThe epitome (in the digital age we are experiencing now) of personal motivation meeting collaborative production is Wikipedia. Shirky devotes this chapter to the conception, growth, and meaning of Wikipedia (an online free content encyclopedia that anyone can edit and contribute to) within the context of how digital tools and applications are amplifying how people converge, communicate, and collaborate.
Wikipedia is one of the largest (if not the largest) and most successful working wikis on the World Wide Web. "A wiki is a hybrid of tool and community" (p.136).
The main ideas Shirky puts forth in chapter 5 about Wikipedia (and personal motivation meeting collaborative production) address
1) Wikipedia's content: after sharing several examples of how Wikipedia addresses different subject entries, he makes a point that there are "hundreds of thousands of articles whose value is both relied on and improved daily" (p.115). Why is this so? A block quote on page 116, from an early essay on the growth of Wikipedia by cofounder Larry Sanger;
Wikipedia's self-correction process is very robust. There is considerable value created by the public review process that is continually going on Wikipedia-value that is very easy to underestimate for those who have not experienced it adequately.Remember the focus of chapter 4, publish, then filter?
2) Unmanaged Division of Labor: Shirky explains that "a Wikipedia article is a process, not a product, and as a result, is never finished" (p.119). He also state that the key to the success of a wiki is that it can take a "staggering amount of input with a minimum of overhead"(p. 120). Participants are free to contribute as much as they want or as little as they want. Eventually, something of substance emerges.
3) A Predictable Imbalance: Shirky explains an important aspect of social media apps and the interaction users get with other users. The most frequent contributors (really active users) are going to get the most interaction. On the surface, this sounds so simple and not very profound, but it is. He illustrates this through power law distributions, in particular the "long tail" variety.