Review: Here Comes Everybody December 7, 2009
Posted by gjchatalas in Reviews.1 comment so far
At my daughter’s elementary school the other day a woman approached me. I had never met or seen her before, but thanks to Facebook she knew who I was. She asked me how I knew her childhood friend, and as it turned out we had lots of friends in common. If it weren’t for the popular online social tool we might not have ever made these connections.
Most people these days have had an experience like this one. And Clay Shirky’s 2008 book, “Here Comes Everybody,” takes this trend even further, providing anecdotes and insights into the many ways people are communicating and working together in the digital era. The book is filled with examples of how this is taking place, whether via banding together to recover a lost cell phone, flashmobs in Belarus, sharing photos of the 2005 London Train bombings, or creating an online encyclopedia with volunteers.
Essentially the heart of Shirky’s book is that better and cheaper technology has altered the manner in which groups function. This flexibility is challenging the long-accepted attributes of institutional structure; people can now organize in a cost-efficient fashion that allows for creativity. This helps to counter the “institutional dilemma,” which is the competition between value and cost. Institutions understand the value of group activity, but managing it depletes resources. Online social tools are lowering the costs of coordinating this group action, and now, successful organization is being done regularly outside the walls of business.
Shirky packs a lot of punch into these 300 pages. Each chapter covers in depth yet another lesson on the use of online tools, and the societal context. His writing is engaging, and the stories he relates are enlightening and sensible.
The case of Wikipedia shows how well people can work without a structured organization. When it began, as Nupedia, it wasn’t really catching on. That’s because there was an onerous editorial and approval structure that was sapping the enthusiasm of the contributors. But once it was set up so that anybody could make entries and edits, it caught fire. When the masses were entrusted to do it on their own terms, the result was one of the most popular sites on the Internet.
The book weaves seamlessly between simple and complex theories. Early in the book he describes the birthday paradox, explaining why a room with 25 people will usually yield a pair with the same birthday, which at first seems counter-intuitive. Later in the book he goes further, explaining why there’s a decent chance two people sitting next to each other on an airplane likely are acquaintances with someone in common. This “small world” theory underscores that we are socially connected. And digital tools are making these connections easier to facilitate.
Shirky claims that in this online era everyone is a media outlet. Indeed, everybody these days is creating and sharing content. We don’t need a printing press to distribute our words, nor a television station to pass along compelling video. And due to the ubiquitous social tools, now amateurs can do it in a fashion that rivals professionals.
This blurring of the lines between amateur and professional is a common theme throughout Shirky’s book. This is what we’re already seeing as the mainstream media, in particular newspapers, fight for their very existence. The professionals just don’t have the market cornered any more. Bloggers and other online news sources have fundamentally changed this equation. The news model before was for a few professionals to decide what would be published. Now, as detailed in the chapter “Publish, Then Filter,” there’s so much information available for all, and the challenge is deciding which content we want to read, watch and trust.
What we’ll see emerging from this shift isn’t necessarily a new institution to take the place of the old. Shirky, in an interview while at the “New News Ecology” conference at Yale earlier this year, says that “lots and lots of little overlapping versions of small organizations” will become the norm. And that’s good; instead of a few companies making loads of cash, these many smaller entities will have varying revenue streams. These organizations will be nimble and not as bound to the traditional ways of conducting business.
That said, we never really know for certain how technologies will affect society over time. Shirky relates that space flight and nuclear power were once considered potential catalysts for changing the world. But as it turned out the real change agents of the era ended up being transistors and the birth control pill; transistors because they brought increasing power within a small package, and birth control because it helped create a world where women were empowered and free.
“Communications tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring,” Shirky writes. “It’s when a technology becomes normal, then ubiquitous, and finally so pervasive as to be invisible, that the really profound changes happen.” Thus, looking ahead will be difficult, and we won’t really even understand the repercussions of these times until the technology hits a high level of saturation. That would also include use of the tools by a broader portion of the population than Shirky gives attention to in the book, those of different ethnicities and lower financial and educational levels.
Another particular question about the future is what will be the monetary model. Shirky, like others before him, plays up that people are creating content for free. I am still doubtful that this will be the case over time; money will at some point become a driving factor for those who have enhanced their skills and reputations.
That the Internet has changed the way we communicate and interact is already well established. Over the last several years much has been written about the impact of digital media on society. Shirky’s insights vault him into an esteemed club of visionaries. “Here Comes Everybody” is a must-read for those who seek to better understand this revolutionary time. Not only does the book deftly provide perspective, but it does so in an intelligent and easy-to-understand manner.
The Digital Divide and Our New Mayor December 2, 2009
Posted by gjchatalas in Digital Democracy, Reflections.add a comment
Any discussion of the digital divide resonates, because the chasm is a universal issue. Examine any location, from America to Zaire, and we can see that there is a gap between those who have and don’t have access to digital technology. This can refer to computer ownership, access to information online, and the skills necessary to use the technology.
The divide can fall along many lines, including culture, race, age and education. But often the most telling indicator is economic. Those in lower income environments and families are far less likely to be taking advantage of the many wonders of technology.
It’s great to see that Thailand’s government had made bridging the divide a priority. While the article is short on specifics as to how to it’s going to actually fix the problem, it clearly sees the benefit of moving in this direction. I’ll be curious to see what progress has been made in that country since the introduction of this initiative.
Closer to home, the City of Seattle released a report in October that examined how our citizens are using information technology. Among the research findings of note:
- 84 percent of households have Internet service. And 75 percent have broadband or a service that’s faster than dial-up.
- There are disparities along the common lines of income, ethnicity, and education. Ninety percent of Caucasian households are online, while only 45 percent of Hispanic/Latino and 66 percent of African American households do.
- People want to use the tools, but need them to be affordable and accessed in a friendly environment that features training and comfort for all cultures.
During his campaign for mayor, Mike McGinn talked of creating a city-wide wireless system. This was dismissed by some, the feeling being that we’re in pretty good shape now in regard to our options, service and rate of use.
Now that McGinn’s moving into city hall, though, I can see him embracing the results of the technology report and moving forward on expanding and improving service. McGinn, more than any local candidate, understands the power of these online tools, and they were utilized in his campaign organization and strategy. Now he’s out there, preaching the mantra of communicating and working together to make this city better… essentially collective action as a city priority. I even see opportunity to address the digital divide by offering instruction on the basics of citizen media so that people can gain those skills and serve their communities better.
Digital media seems to have a friend in the mayor’s office come 2010. Watching how the city incorporates technology into all of its endeavors will be fascinating.
