Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Reading this was about as timely as it gets for me. Clay Shirky, one of the contemporary thought leaders examining the sociological ramifications technology – and specifically the internet – bring to us, provides a seminal analysis on the new forms of organization that the information highway facilitate. In the same vein of Wikinomics (a work he references on occasion), he takes a look at how the lowering of social transaction costs allow us to connect and communicate more rapidly and effectively. He examines the differences between bonding and bridging capital (between and among heterogeneous groups) and why some initatives have failed and succeeded where similar ones have not.
The only disappointment was that he didn’t have a chance to write this book a few years later. He stays relatively neutral with regard to the various tools and social media platforms, but because of when this was written he discusses more MySpace and MeetUp (he seems particularly fond of the latter) and only mentions LinkedIn and Facebook in passing. Twitter barely gets any ink at all. I appreciate the fact that these tools move so fast that by the time a book can be published the odds of any given platform remaining ascendant have declined (making the whole publish then filter argument somewhat ironic).
I would be excited to see what Mr. Shirky would have to say about the new Google+ network / platform recently released, and his last chapter or two discuss specifically the “winning formula” for social media tools. He talks of the specific needs a successful platform has (namely a promise, a tool and a bargain between the platform and the group). Additionally, I would love to hear his thoughts on the Obama campaign (he discusses the well-publicized but less-successful Howard Dean candidacy) and I look forward to his comments on the pending elections.
I look forward to reading more of Mr. Shirky’s work.
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