Clay Shirky

On the cover this doesn't necessarily look like a punk book about community care but in many ways I'd say it is. Clay Shirky takes a look at modern consumer-based technology: how it's created, how it's used, the patterns that creates in it's user base that further it's own devices, and how we can hijack the system to create meaningful action with our surplus of human hours. In many ways it inspires hope that the mess of social media we have now can still be used in some way for positive gains and it gives pretty clear instructions about techniques we can use as individuals to work towards those ends, including being an informed consumer. While note 100% up to date with the latest tech and trends it's still very informed about human usage patterns & the mentality that drives them, so to that end it's quite good.… (more)

While I preferred "Here Comes Everybody", this book was interesting as well. It's basically an examination of how people use online tools to change the world. The book tends to feel Polyannaish and I don't think Shirky went nearly deep enough in his examination on how tools like Facebook and Twitter can be used for evil. I also think that LOLCats is a rather trivial example of group collaboration(Shirky admits this), so why bother with it at all. I'd liked to have seen discussion of 4chan, anonymous and other places/personas on the Internet that don't always work as a force for good. Shirky is obviously pro-sharing, and pro amateur production without really discussing the filter failure this creates and how we might deal with it, whether it be by curation or algorithm. Clearly, Shirky set out to prove or at least suggest a positive use for online tools, but ignoring the less than savory uses doesn't make them go away, nor does it give users an adequate picture of how online tools really work.… (more)