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4th out of 14 books
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Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations
by
Clay Shirky
A revelatory examination of how the wildfirelike spread of new forms of social interaction enabled by technology is changing the way humans form groups and exist within them, with profound long-term economic and social effects-for good and for ill
A handful of kite hobbyists scattered around the world find each other online and collaborate on the most radical improvement ...more
A handful of kite hobbyists scattered around the world find each other online and collaborate on the most radical improvement ...more
Hardcover, 304 pages
Published
February 28th 2008
by Penguin Press HC, The
(first published January 1st 2008)
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Why did you log in to GoodReads today? What is behind the explosion of Internet-based social networking in all its forms, from e-mail, to listservs, to Facebook, Flickr and Twitter? And more important: what does this new wave of truly participatory media bode for the future?
Clay Shirky takes on these big questions in Here Comes Everybody, and the result is an engaging, eye-opening book that draws upon social change theory, economics, and psychology. Shirky contends that the Internet,...more
Clay Shirky takes on these big questions in Here Comes Everybody, and the result is an engaging, eye-opening book that draws upon social change theory, economics, and psychology. Shirky contends that the Internet,...more
Reprinted from my website:
Clay Shirky's new book, Here Comes Everybody is at once highly readable and a massive undertaking. He sets out to explain, as many recent authors have done, how new communication technologies and the people who use them are changing the world we live in. This is a task so large that, to my mind, no one's really done it successfully. But watching people try is always enlightening. In effect, reading through books on Internet and society is like watching...more
Clay Shirky's new book, Here Comes Everybody is at once highly readable and a massive undertaking. He sets out to explain, as many recent authors have done, how new communication technologies and the people who use them are changing the world we live in. This is a task so large that, to my mind, no one's really done it successfully. But watching people try is always enlightening. In effect, reading through books on Internet and society is like watching...more
This book really hit home in terms of the amazing changes that are occurring because of the read/write web and the digital tools that are available to everybody. Amazing cultural and social shifts are occurring. One of my favorite quotes from the book (and there are many) is - We're not dealing with information overload, that's been happening since the 1500s with the invention of the printing press, we're dealing with filter failure.
This book's all about the rise of social tools (think twitter, facebook, meetup, etc) and how the lowered costs of social interactions have changed group dynamics. It's a great overview of the various movements and episodes they've inspired (who thought I'd look upon Twitter with such respect?) and of the role of technology in our lives. I thought it was well-written and a quick read, and it made me feel kinda cool again. You digg?
Clay Shirky's book is enjoyable and worth reading, though the main point--that technological change has lowered communications costs tremendously, thereby also encouraging group formation--is obvious. The book is really a collection of anecdotes illustrating this central point. These anecdotes cover a wide range--from the creation of Wikipedia to a fashion obsessed blogger undermining a military coup to an online chat group for anorexics--and are generally interesting.
Fantastic stuff. I'm already finding ways to use this (or at least have seen it) in so many places in my life. Those who are technological immigrants (Baby boomers, and early Gen-Xers) should read this to keep up on what is happening, and technological natives should read this to make sense of why the old way will be the ruin of some businesses (and non-profits, and political campaigns, and clubs, and...).
Of particular fascination to me was the way he talked about explicit and imp...more
Of particular fascination to me was the way he talked about explicit and imp...more
Clay Shirky, whose writing and presentations on Internet technology and social change are consistently sharp and engaging, provides a from-the-field report on our continuing evolution from hierarchical, highly organized entities to the far less formal collaborations fostered by social networking resources. “Social tools provide…action by loosely structured groups, operating without managerial direction and outside the profit motive,” he reminds us (p. 47), and the result is explosive in terms of...more
Unless you've been living under a rock over the past few years, you would have noticed an explosion in ways that people interact, collaborate and exchange information online. We are probably undergoing the greatest technological shift since the advent of e-mail, and it'd probably hard to grasp all the ramifications that profound new change is heralding. Every year now, or sometimes every month, several new information terms and products enter our collective consciousness, terms like blog, Twitte...more
Dave Emmett
rated it
This book was really good. It looks at how technological changes are transforming the way people come together to form groups and affect the world.
That quote, “More is different”, sums up a lot of the challenges that are presented in the book (as well as the opportunities). A group of 100 people isn’t 10 times more complex than a group of 10; it’s an entirely different beast. And with the technology we have today (blogs, texting, twitter, email), it has never been easier to get 100 o...more
That quote, “More is different”, sums up a lot of the challenges that are presented in the book (as well as the opportunities). A group of 100 people isn’t 10 times more complex than a group of 10; it’s an entirely different beast. And with the technology we have today (blogs, texting, twitter, email), it has never been easier to get 100 o...more
Writer Lev Grossman has chosen to discuss Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody: How Change Happens When People Come Together on FiveBooks as one of the top five on his subject- The World Wide Web, saying that:
"...A lot of ink has been spilled, much of it by me, about the Web 2.0 revolution, and how it changes the way business and art and socialising and political organisation get done. Shirky is simply the best person at articulating what’s very weird and new about what’s going on...more
"...A lot of ink has been spilled, much of it by me, about the Web 2.0 revolution, and how it changes the way business and art and socialising and political organisation get done. Shirky is simply the best person at articulating what’s very weird and new about what’s going on...more
This should be required reading for all librarians, if for nothing else than Chapter 3, in which he mentions how the people inside the institutions have the hardest time seeing how the institution is becoming obsolete. (yikes! but true!) AND Chapter 5 in which he explains how Wikipedia works. I also loved the later chapters on the importance of failures, and how institutions often have a hard time letting things go because they've already paid for them.
This "failure"concept...more
This "failure"concept...more
I very much enjoyed reading _Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations_ by Clay Shirky (2008). Some quotes from Shirky on the practical and current use of the web and technology:
"... many of the significant changes are based not on the fanciest, newest bits of technology but on simple, easy-to-use
tools like e-mail, mobile phones, and websites, because those are the tools most people have access to and, critically, are comfortable using in their dail...more
"... many of the significant changes are based not on the fanciest, newest bits of technology but on simple, easy-to-use
tools like e-mail, mobile phones, and websites, because those are the tools most people have access to and, critically, are comfortable using in their dail...more
lay is a great social web commentator. He’s part of an elite circle of thinkers and influencers alongside Seth Godin, Sree Sreenivasan, John Battelle. He’s often able to distill some of the great web-enabled transformations taking place into amusing tidbits like this one on cognitive surplus: how this era of participation is replacing the social surplus ( of TV).
The book sets out to explain some of the massive changes that have contributed to the contemporary successes of linux, wiki...more
The book sets out to explain some of the massive changes that have contributed to the contemporary successes of linux, wiki...more
If you're someone who wonders what those kids are up to these days, and you've heard of facebook but don't know what it does, and someone mentioned twitter to you once, but that pretty much escapes you - this is the book for you.
Needles to say, it was not the book for me.
Much of this book is spent describing various social networking / new media sites, and exploring their function as part of an altered vision of social organizing. The internet, runs Shirky's argument, al...more
Needles to say, it was not the book for me.
Much of this book is spent describing various social networking / new media sites, and exploring their function as part of an altered vision of social organizing. The internet, runs Shirky's argument, al...more
John
rated it
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In Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky looks at how the traditional costs associated with organizations have virtually disappeared with the advent of social media in the past five years. Shirky looks at how technological advances have changed the threshold for large scale interaction. The book is filled with stories from the web that illustrate how e-mail, Twitter, listservs and websites has allowed people to enact real change throughout the world. From a group that hounds a teenager to give back...more
I'm having trouble figuring out exactly why I like Clay Shirky so much. I have a few candidates for the main reason. First, he tends to have insightful things to say about topics I'm interested in. My favorite thing he has done is his lecture "Ontology is Overrated". However, while I'm not accusing him of being derivative, I can trace many of the ideas I like best in Shirky's work to Yochai Benkler.
So that leads me to think that perhaps what I like best about Shirky's work i...more
So that leads me to think that perhaps what I like best about Shirky's work i...more
What I find most fascinating about Clay Shirky’s 2008 book Here Comes Everybody is how outdated it is.
He barely mentions Twitter – he says it came into being while the book was being written. Facebook is mentioned in passing, in favor of MySpace – though he does observe that Facebook is white collar, while MySpace is more blue collar.
And though I think he overemphasizes the impact social technology – the Internet, e-mail, mobile phones, et cetera – has had on removing obstacles...more
He barely mentions Twitter – he says it came into being while the book was being written. Facebook is mentioned in passing, in favor of MySpace – though he does observe that Facebook is white collar, while MySpace is more blue collar.
And though I think he overemphasizes the impact social technology – the Internet, e-mail, mobile phones, et cetera – has had on removing obstacles...more
This may be one of the best ethnographies of our time. Clay Shirky explores the ways in which technology has altered news consumption, social work, networking, self expression, and more. He argues that new media technologies are as revolutionary as the printing press and movable type once were.
Shirky takes examples from Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Digg. Those tools are still the leaders in social media but he could just as easily have written this five years ago using Friendster,...more
Shirky takes examples from Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Digg. Those tools are still the leaders in social media but he could just as easily have written this five years ago using Friendster,...more
As I compile the bible for our new millennium, I will include Here Comes Everybody as "The Book of Clay". In his exploration of the dramatically augmented ability for humans to organize, Clay Shirky exposes the power and depth that the current social media revolution will use to change society forever. What Shirky doesn't do is offer solutions. Solutions in the sense of, "Here's how we are going to use citizen journalists to replace newspapers" or "Musicians can do this ...more
This probably should not have been a book. It probably should have been an essay, in Wired magazine or maybe in The Atlantic. Shirky is a good writer, he writes clearly and entertainingly, but there just isn't enough substance in here to justify an almost 400 page book. There are a few [maybe two or 3] central ideas that are then expanded upon, examples are given, then more examples are given, and then finally padding is added.
I got the same kind of feeling reading this book as I do r...more
I got the same kind of feeling reading this book as I do r...more
Useful look at how electronic and social media are transforming society
Author Clay Shirky tackles a daunting task: He sets out to explain how new electronic media are transforming society. In itself, that sounds common enough, but Shirky’s focus and specificity raise his book to a level of much greater value and utility than its peers. He examines the social nature of human beings, and analyzes how tools ranging from e-mail to text messages change the way people organize into groups....more
Author Clay Shirky tackles a daunting task: He sets out to explain how new electronic media are transforming society. In itself, that sounds common enough, but Shirky’s focus and specificity raise his book to a level of much greater value and utility than its peers. He examines the social nature of human beings, and analyzes how tools ranging from e-mail to text messages change the way people organize into groups....more
A fascinating insight into the changes in communication, social behaviours and technology in our world. Easy to read, relevant to the everyday person and thought provoking, it's well worth giving a try.
"The number of people who are willing to start something is smaller, much smaller, that the number of people who are willing to contribute once someone starts something."
For anyone interested in social informatics, and understanding the evolution underway in the social networking underbelly of business, politics, and society-at-large, this book is an essential read. I found myself constantly jotting down notes, wanting to follow up on references he mentions, and finding app...more
For anyone interested in social informatics, and understanding the evolution underway in the social networking underbelly of business, politics, and society-at-large, this book is an essential read. I found myself constantly jotting down notes, wanting to follow up on references he mentions, and finding app...more
What Stood Out Most:
When I was reading Clay Shirky’s book Here Comes Everybody- the power of organizing without organization, what stood out most for me was the idea of the “power of group action, given the right tools” (Page 7). Throughout this book Shriky shows exactly how powerful groups of people are when they use tools to help them. A young woman looses her cell phone and uses the power of blogs, web pages and e-mail to get it back and to catch the thief. Citizens of the country of...more
When I was reading Clay Shirky’s book Here Comes Everybody- the power of organizing without organization, what stood out most for me was the idea of the “power of group action, given the right tools” (Page 7). Throughout this book Shriky shows exactly how powerful groups of people are when they use tools to help them. A young woman looses her cell phone and uses the power of blogs, web pages and e-mail to get it back and to catch the thief. Citizens of the country of...more
This book unfolds and explains an interesting theory about the internet and how it changed modern communication, our day-to-day life and our thinking. I liked his description of the steps from the medieval scribers to Gutenberg's printing technique, from the telephone and the radio/TV to the first years of the Internet and then the generation of Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. It opened my eyes how much this revolution arose from economic (and time sparing) facts and rules and how professional wri...more
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Fantastic book on the way social networks and the Web in general are extending our natural social behavior exponentially. Clay Shirky puts this in historical perspective with a lot of comparison to the printing press which I think is the right comparison. It's hard to imagine public libraries, universities, newspapers, and nation states without the printing press.
Today, the newspaper industry is teetering on the brink of collapse. Shirky points out that we are in a transformative ...more
Today, the newspaper industry is teetering on the brink of collapse. Shirky points out that we are in a transformative ...more
my link Jonny Baker blogged about this book and recommened it... it seemed interesting so i went to Amazon.com and read a preview of the first chapter. i liked it so I ordered it.
There were sections of this book that were very interesting to me and others that were hard to grab on to. the most positive thing that i took from this book was seeing how practical it is becoming for people to collaborate without the formality of an organization. Most of the examples stem from internet...more
There were sections of this book that were very interesting to me and others that were hard to grab on to. the most positive thing that i took from this book was seeing how practical it is becoming for people to collaborate without the formality of an organization. Most of the examples stem from internet...more
I learned about a new application called dodgeball (http://www.dodgeball.com/) but it looks like the site is being shut down. Basically, the service allowed you to subscribe and then if you were out on the town and you posted your location, it would notify everyone affiliated with your account and any of your friends accounts if you were in the same vicinity. It included a pic of the person in the phone so you could essentially meet a friend of a friend out without being previously introduced. C...more
Liked this. Read it from the library, then bought it used to read again. Probably an overly optimistic book, though preceding the revolutions in the Arab world it takes on prophetic qualities, maybe. Despite the title, which is a Finnegans Wake reference, this book is not particularly well-written or imaginative enough to reflect Shirky's obvious McLuhanesque ambitions. This is a book very much of its time, if slightly ahead, and as such will never become a classic or anything, much like a Tweet...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Watch Clay Shirky Speak on this book (42 min) | 1 | 13 | Oct 02, 2009 08:55am |
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Mr. Shirky divides his time between consulting, teaching, and writing on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. His consulting practice is focused on the rise of decentralized technologies such as peer-to-peer, web services, and wireless networks that provide alternatives to the wired client/server infrastructure that characterizes the Web. Current clients include Nokia, GBN, th...more
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