Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations

by Clay Shirky

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544 ratings, 3.89 average rating, 161 reviews (more data...)

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4		46%
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2		4%
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published

February 28th 2008 by Penguin Press HC, The

binding

Hardcover, 304 pages

isbn

1594201536 (isbn13: 9781594201530)

description

A revelatory examination of how the wildfirelike spread of new forms of social interaction enabled by technology is changing the way humans form group...more

[close] 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 in kite design in decades. A midwestern professor of Middle Eastern history starts a blog after 9/11 that becomes essential reading for journalists covering the Iraq war. Activists use the Internet and e-mail to bring offensive comments made by Trent Lott and Don Imus to a wide public and hound them from their positions. A few people find that a world-class online encyclopedia created entirely by volunteers and open for editing by anyone, a wiki, is not an impractical idea. Jihadi groups trade inspiration and instruction and showcase terrorist atrocities to the world, entirely online. A wide group of unrelated people swarms to a Web site about the theft of a cell phone and ultimately goads the New York City police to take action, leading to the culprit's arrest.

With accelerating velocity, our age's new technologies of social networking are evolving, and evolving us, into new groups doing new things in new ways, and old and new groups alike doing the old things better and more easily. You don't have to have a MySpace page to know that the times they are a changin'. Hierarchical structures that exist to manage the work of groups are seeing their raisons d'tre swiftly eroded by the rising technological tide. Business models are being destroyed, transformed, born at dizzying speeds, and the larger social impact is profound.

One of the culture's wisest observers of the transformational power of the new forms of tech-enabled social interaction is Clay Shirky, and Here Comes Everybody is his marvelous reckoning with the ramifications of all this on what we do and who we are. Like Lawrence Lessig on the effect of new technology on regimes of cultural creation, Shirky's assessment of the impact of new technology on the nature and use of groups is marvelously broad minded, lucid, and penetrating; it integrates the views of a number of other thinkers across a broad range of disciplines with his own pioneering work to provide a holistic framework for understanding the opportunities and the threats to the existing order that these new, spontaneous networks of social interaction represent. Wikinomics, yes, but also wikigovernment, wikiculture, wikievery imaginable interest group, including the far from savory. A revolution in social organization has commenced, and Clay Shirky is its brilliant chronicler. [close]

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06/09/08

Ken rated it:

Read in July, 2008

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 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, cell phones and other two-way communications technologies have lowered the barriers to group formation, such that people are organizing to great effect in ways that would have been impossible just a few years ago. This is taking place in all sorts of ways: social groups, political action groups, photo sharing, news and information sharing, lifestyle support groups, the list goes on and on.

Shirky believes that the power of these new tools at our disposal will be harnessed collectively in a positive direction. He acknowledges that many individuals seek to disrupt cooperative efforts (look at spammers, or "trolls" on mailing lists, for instance). Tools that are overrun by those seeking to disrupt them, though, were flawed in some way, and will fall away in favor of tools such as Wikipedia that correct for such vandalism.

What of corporate and governmental entities trying to screen/censor Internet content? Shirky believes that such efforts are doomed to failure: due to the nature of the technology itself, people will find a way around those attempted impositions. So far, world events bear out his perspective.

Shirky doesn't deal much with inequities in access to these communications tools. But that may be peripheral to his point: after all, not everyone had access to a printing press, yet its relatively widespread availability led to great change all over the world. And anyway, Shirky isn't crazy enough to say that the new ease of organizing will eradicate inequality throughout the world.

Here Comes Everybody is an important counterpoint to those who think that social networking is just a popularity contest for kids, or who bemoan the "narcissism" of people who put their information into MySpace. There's a whole lot more going on there, and people of all generations are beginning to figure that out.
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05/03/08

Josh Braun rated it:

bookshelves: digital-age, nonfiction

Read in May, 2008

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

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01/29/09

Kimberly Lightle rated it:

Read in December, 2008

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.

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01/29/09

Lillymonster rated it:

Read in February, 2009

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?

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03/06/09

Jill rated it:

bookshelves: nonfiction

Read in February, 2009

recommends it for: everyone!

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

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07/05/09

Shehab hamad rated it:

Read in June, 2009

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, ...more

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06/23/09

Catherine rated it:

(review of isbn 0143114948)

bookshelves: 2009, mainstream-us

Read in June, 2009

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

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01/20/09

John rated it:

bookshelves: 2009, advertising, business, culturalstudies, current_affairs, epublishing, knowledgemanagement, marketing, tech, usability

Read in January, 2009

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

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03/23/09

Justin rated it:

Read in March, 2009

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 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 to ensure album sales". But that's ok, simply understanding the ubiquitous internet and how it is changing everything will help individuals answer those questions through start-ups and business ventures.

Simply to exist that the size of major corporations, the organizations take on all the costs of management. Every organization exists in contradiction to itself. It is a paradox. It directs group effort but its resources must be drained to support that coordination. Org charts and managerial structures were developed to solve the explosions of complexity from railroad growth in the 1840's. But when designed, a key component of the segmented managerial infrastructure was that daily reports should not, 'embarrass principal officers nor lessen their influence with subordinates'. Hence the organization that seems like little more than an endless stream of wastepaper baskets, designed to keep information from the CEO. It is this very structure that social media tools collapse because they need no principal org chart. Information can rise and fall through "hierarchies" because of their implicit structure. All we need to do is filter. In the past it was filter then publish, now that publishing costs have collapsed its become publish then filter. Example: photography has collapsed as a profession because of the formerly specialized infrastructure that formed the profession, it has become accessible to everyone. Now the true value in photography lies in communities like Flickr that tag, comment and filter the world of photography for end content viewers.

And our society is in a revolution. Revolutions don't occur when a society adopts new technologies. The technologies we use now have been available for decades. What makes the internet a revolution is that it is quickly changing our behaviours. Hence journalisms transistion from a profession into an activity.

Sadly though, the current institutional structures have ensured that everyone remembers you saying yes to a failure instead of saying no to a radical but promising idea. Something I have faced when pitching CLT Blog. What? You have no true competitors? Well, maybe our competitor is the status quo. Investors have to move away from the safe choices and into looking for Taleb's Black Swans.

Institutions have existed because they lower the transaction costs between individuals. However, working for a major corporation, I can do many functions of office work with tools from social media start ups rather than through the "approved" tools like MS Outlook and Microsoft SharePoint. Give me Gmail and Dropbox any day.

Sadly, as Bill Joy said best, "No matter who you are the smart people work for someone else." but that is changing as expertise becomes infinitely accessibly through Twitter and blogging.

Shirky ends the book with an examination of how new social media companies can build tools to harness the ability of people to organize on the internet. The key of new internet business is answering, 'Do the people who like your software take care of each other' rather than answering, 'What is your business model'. Creating a promise to users is the key component of media that harnesses communities. Second, the tool must be easy and intiutive. But perhaps most importantly, the bargain between the tool and the users must be upheld.

This book is a wealth of case studies and examples. My own neighborhood of North Charlotte even got a few shout-outs for its Stay-at-Home-Moms meetups.

As someone involved deeply with the future of citizen journalism through CLT Blog this was an essential read and should be for anyone preparing to know the revolution we are experiencing intimately.(less)

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02/05/09

getAbstract rated it:

Read in February, 2009

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 group...more

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12/13/08

~*kath*~ rated it:

Read in December, 2008

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.

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03/24/09

Cbuck rated it:

bookshelves: social-networking

Read in April, 2009

"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

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11/18/08

Stephanie rated it:

bookshelves: currently-reading

Read in November, 2008

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 coun...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 Belarus use blogs to organize flash mobs who participate in peaceful protests against government. Protests on college campuses are organized through Facebook groups. Countless numbers of people change entries in Wikipedia every day. Then they start their own wikis and use them in private and public ways. These are just a few examples of the power of group action through social networking and technology that can be found throughout this book.

Theme:
This book focuses on human beings being social creatures and how we use that social nature to collaborate and work together. Shirky states, “We are living in the middle of a remarkable increase in our ability to share, to cooperate with one another, and to take collective action, all outside the framework of traditional institutions and organizations” (Page 20-21). The book shows how people can join together and make a difference, sometimes with little planning. All it takes is one person to start a blog or wiki on a topic that hits home with a particular demographic of people and soon changes are happening.

Reaction:
I liked how Clay Shirky used real life stories to show his points. Typically I am more of a fiction person. I like books with stories. I do not like reading “text book” writing. Normally I would not go to the bookstore and purchase a book like this one. Because the author used interesting stories it made the book easier to read and more interesting. These real life accounts helped him illustrate his points in a way that was easier for me to understand. I did not loose interest as quickly as I thought I would.

Shirky makes great points that really provoke the reader to think about the the digital world around us. I agree with his ideas and think that he did a good job explaining them.

Connection:
Social networking and organizing online has now become the norm. Everyone, from every age group, is participating in this. Students are on Facebook and MySpace. They blog and participate in wikis. Schools cannot ignore this anymore. We must teach our children how to handle this appropriately. Shirky mentions one incident where a newspaper’s wiki was vandalized so much that it was taken down almost immediately after it was created. At some point schools are going to have to take responsibility for teaching student how to participate in these internet organizations in a mature and responsible way so that incidents like this one occur less frequently. Ultimately our students need to know how to behave in groups, especially on the Internet, so that things that they post or participate in do not negatively affect them later on in life. They need to be responsible contributors to society. High schools may need to start thinking about classes that will teach students these skills.

Conclusion:
I would give this book four out of five stars. It really makes the reader think about how our world organizes online and how that organization has the power to change our world. I would recommend this book to anyone who is new to social networking or who is a little put off by it. The book definitely shows the advantages of social networking and organization. It demonstrates how easy it is to be a part of an organization the has the potential to make meaningful change. I also think that teachers and administrators should read this book. It will teach them about all the possible ways that their students are using (or could use in the future) social networking and online organizing and may help them to see that this is not all bad and scary. It might help them be more open to bring some of it into their curriculum.
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04/29/09

Geoff Hankerson rated it:

Read in May, 2009

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

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02/05/09

Tim rated it:

Read in February, 2009

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

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03/29/09

Jami rated it:

Read in April, 2009

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

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07/28/08

Chipp rated it:

Wow - I inhaled this book like none-other! The landscape it describes is changing so fast, you should slurp it up quick. It's a great historical recap for someone who fell alseep in 2002 and just woke up.

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05/24/09

Lynn rated it:

An excellent description of the current state of communications in our culture and a must-read for anyone who dabbles in organizing (or more than dabbles). He doesn't really say anything you probably don't know already, but he says it all very well and puts it all in context.

My favorite quote from Shirky, which sums up what is most useful about the new paradigm: Now the highly motivated people can create a context more easily in which the barely motivated people can be effective wit...more

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04/06/09

Margot rated it:

(review of isbn 0143114948)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Read in April, 2009

I'm about halfway through this book, the latest in the long line of "Golly, gee, the internet is changing everything" books. There's a fair bit of conventional wisdom in here, but some interesting points about how the internet, because people can organize themselves without institutions, is leading to greater collaboration without the attendant costs of managers, gatekeepers, profit, bureacracy, etc. I was impressed by the rave reviews all over the back cover, but so far, I haven't fou...more

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04/18/09

Martha rated it:

Read in May, 2009

Here Comes Everybody opens with a story of the everyday: someone loses a phone. But it is not just a someone and it is not just an everyday. This person happens to have a friend who is a savvy programmer and the day is now, where millions of people are connected through various online networks. The phone is found and returned, but Clay Shirky’s point is made: communities are growing so you need to understand them and how they change things.

Each chapter of the book covers a diffe...more

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"An organization will tend to grow only when the advantages that can be gotten from directing the work of additional employees are less than the transaction costs of managing them." More quotes...