Here Comes Everybody, Part 1

Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody, focuses on one main question: How are new social tools changing the power of group action? Shirky starts off by providing an example of the power of group action when given the right tools. A woman, Ivanna, loses her phone in taxi, and it ends up in the hands of Sasha, who refuses to give it back. Because of new social tools that allow groups to more easily self-assemble, Ivanna’s friend was able to get millions of people on their side, which led to the arrest of Sasha and the return of the phone. Shirky argues that new social tools have “radically altered the old limits on the size, sophistication, and scope of the unsupervised effort” (21). This example also shows how the internet has increased the likelihood of being scrutinized in public. The main point is: changing the way we communicate and the way groups get things done changes society (17).

Shirky then uses the example of the Coney Island Mermaid Parade to demonstrate how new social tools (Flickr in this case) can now achieve things that were previously out of reach for traditional organization because they lay under the Coasean floor (the cost of management > profit margin). For the first time, attendees were able to form a group and share their pictures because cost of coordinating group action has been lowered. This changes the traditional “Gather, then share” to “Share, then Gather.” One key point is that “Aggregations of anything from atoms to people exhibit complex behavior that cannot be predicted by observing the component parts” (28). How might this relate to our blogs?

In the next chapter, Shirky discusses the mass amateurization of publishing. He claims that traditionally, professionals were gatekeepers who provided and controlled access to information (57). Now that anyone can publish on blogs, media is not as much controlled by professionals, and the limitations in having a small number of traditional press outlets are undone (65). To explain this, Shirky gives us the example of a congressman whose racist quote could not be covered by the traditional press, but once covered by bloggers, forcing the congressman into an apology, the traditional press could cover the apology, providing a way for them to show the racist quote without it being “old news” (61). One important question that Shirky brings up is "who should enjoy journalistic privilege?" How do we include journalistic bloggers, without including so many people that journalistic privilege becomes unprofitable?

Shirky then discusses the “Publish, then filter” aspect of blogging and other new social tools. Traditionally, to get something published, someone would have to think it was worth publishing. Now, you can publish anything, and then people will decide if it is good. How does this benefit/hinder our experience as bloggers? Shirky argues that there is no clear point when a blog stops being a diary and starts being a media outlet. Do you agree with this? He compares the audience to a community, and says that it is “as if your phone could turn into a radio station at the turn of a knob” (89).

One other key point from this section is that change comes when the invention of a tool has been around long enough that it is ubiquitous. Now that these new social tools that allow social groups to easily and cheaply self-assemble are becoming ubiquitous for young users, we are going to see some big changes in the way our society functions very soon (108).