Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Penguin Press (2008), 336 pages
Description
An examination of how the rapid 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. 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. Hierarchical structures that exist to manage the work of groups are seeing their raisons d'e^tre swiftly eroded by the rising tide. Business models are being destroyed, transformed, born at dizzying speeds, and the larger social impact is profound. Clay Shirky is one of our wisest observers of the transformational power of the new forms of tech-enabled social interaction, and this is his reckoning with the ramifications of all this on what we do and who we are.--From publisher description. Discusses and uses examples of how digital networks transform the ability of humans to gather and cooperate with one another.… (more)
Media reviews
It's the kind of a book that you can open to any page and be delighted by -- especially if you love the Internet -- and the kind of a book that you'll want to read aloud from to your friends.
Technology Review
The thing is, Internet books are inevitably either cheerleadery or chidey, and Shirky is a cheerleader.
Nieman Reports
Shirky's terrific new book, "Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations," is an excellent primer for those journalists who feel confused by the impact technology is having on their
industry.
IEEE Spectrum
Sacrificing rigor for readability, Here Comes Everybody is an entertaining as well as informative romp through some of the Internet’s signal moments.
Booklist
A perceptive appraisal of the contemporary technology-society interface.
Publishers Weekly
The sum of Shirky's incisive exploration, like the Web itself, is greater than its parts.
Kirkus Reviews
Some wise observations amidst a predominantly old-news text.
User reviews
LibraryThing member scroall
I was looking forward to reading this book, as I generally find Clay Shirky's ideas very relevant and compelling; I wasn't disappointed. The many different examples he offers of collaboration, and in in many different contexts, definitely got me thinking about the future of many of the
If anything, that is where the book left me somewhat wanting. While he deals very well with the effects of social collaboration, I am very interested in what this might look like in specific types of organizations. The most obvious example, for me, what he treatment of Organized Labour. He mentions, almost in passing, that this type of collaboration could change how Labour would organize and mobilize, but he never explores it in detail. Perhaps this was intentional (I am a pretty small audience to sell a book to).
I'll have to read this one again with that in mind, but I definitely recommend it for anyone interested in what the future of organizations might look like.
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organizations I'm involved in.If anything, that is where the book left me somewhat wanting. While he deals very well with the effects of social collaboration, I am very interested in what this might look like in specific types of organizations. The most obvious example, for me, what he treatment of Organized Labour. He mentions, almost in passing, that this type of collaboration could change how Labour would organize and mobilize, but he never explores it in detail. Perhaps this was intentional (I am a pretty small audience to sell a book to).
I'll have to read this one again with that in mind, but I definitely recommend it for anyone interested in what the future of organizations might look like.
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LibraryThing member debherter
Clay Shirky provides a fascinating, compelling and clear picture of the history of social networking as it has grown from the days of e-mail to the advent of Twitter. (He admits that it is impossible for his book to be current--several of the tools he discusses came into being as he was writing
Most importantly, Shirky uses concrete examples to explain the purposes, uses, and usefulness of social networking tools such as discussion groups, photo sharing services, MySpace and Facebook, blogs, and so on.
Those born after 1980 might view this book as an interesting history. For those of us born before the 80's it is essential reading as we struggle to unlearn the lessons of our pre-Internet lives and to catch up with the modern generation as they hurry into the future.
I can't get the rating stars to go beyond five, but I would give this book a seven.
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it.)Most importantly, Shirky uses concrete examples to explain the purposes, uses, and usefulness of social networking tools such as discussion groups, photo sharing services, MySpace and Facebook, blogs, and so on.
Those born after 1980 might view this book as an interesting history. For those of us born before the 80's it is essential reading as we struggle to unlearn the lessons of our pre-Internet lives and to catch up with the modern generation as they hurry into the future.
I can't get the rating stars to go beyond five, but I would give this book a seven.
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LibraryThing member Ingyplingy
This book made me feel a little bit smarter for every chapter, and was a real page turner which is unusual for non-fiction.
LibraryThing member dsheise
Great read about the impact of social media in society. He illustrates his case very well with real world examples and everyday stuff that is going on. I didn't find it very deep or thought provoking but a very realistic well written overview. It is a must read for anyone involved with social media
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(that's a lot of people theses days...) Show Less
LibraryThing member scroeser
Nothing here is particularly earth-shattering - most of the trends and case studies have been discussed elsewhere - but it's a highly readable and entertaining book.
LibraryThing member wb_tech
So far, awesome! I had no idea that Twitter and Blogger were started by the same guy.
LibraryThing member jewishwomensarchive
If you want to know how this organization should be focusing its efforts and why it matters, this is the book to start that thinking, and to explain why the internet, social networking, and the ways in which so much more of us are so much more connected in so many ways, also mean that we can better
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uncover, chronicle, and transmit the stories in our mission than we ever believed would be possible. Show Less
LibraryThing member AndreasJungherr
This is a great book on the social effects of the growing interconnectedness between people through different types of social applications. Shirky discusses the effects of micro-publishing tools, social networking sites and user generated content on social awareness, collective action, ad-hoc
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community building and innovation. He does this with impressive use cases that show the generation of social action around different social applications. On the basis of these examples Shirky discusses the changes in social dynamics through the growing distribution and ease of use of these social applications. Shirky is a great storyteller and his analysis is balanced. This is a nice change to a lot of social media hypesters and doomsayers. In my eyes this is the most evenhanded introduction to the social implications of the use of social applications to date. Show Less
LibraryThing member mdreid
A very readable survey of social networks such as Wikipedia and why collaboration on this sort of scale will have significant effects on business, culture and science.
As well as a number of clear examples of these networks and their power, Shirkey also gives some plausible theories as to when they
All in all, this is one of those books that sums up a lot of current thinking about social networks without necessarily offering a blazing new insight. This isn't meant as a criticism though since Shirkey writes very well and has obviously put a large effort into synthesising and lucidly presenting the central ideas in this area.
As well as a number of clear examples of these networks and their power, Shirkey also gives some plausible theories as to when they
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work and when they do not. In particular, he argues that for a social network to be successful it requires a "promise" - an articulation of what the network will do; the right "tools" - simple, easy to use services that don't get in the user's way; and a "bargain" - a statement of what each user will get in return for their participation.All in all, this is one of those books that sums up a lot of current thinking about social networks without necessarily offering a blazing new insight. This isn't meant as a criticism though since Shirkey writes very well and has obviously put a large effort into synthesising and lucidly presenting the central ideas in this area.
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LibraryThing member red_dianthus
It isn't very often I get a book for a termpaper and end up keeping it after the paper is done so I can read the other chapters. Most of the ideas really were not new, but he uses very good examples to make his points and there is some really interesting little bits of computer and social
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networking history in here. Show Less
LibraryThing member elmiller
This book went much deeper into the topic of social networking than I expected. He takes the concepts beyond the web, demonstrating how some principles that influence use of the web related to human societies in general, such as "small world networks". He also analyzes why many social networking
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web sites fail, which is good to read if you are considering starting your own site. However, I found the later chapters less compelling because he kept reusing the same examples he introduced in earlier chapters, so I felt like I was re-reading the same information. Show Less
LibraryThing member bexaplex
Here Comes Everybody would have made a marvelous essay, synthesizing research from a variety of fields to describe how social networking has changed and is changing life and society. As a book, it's bloated and uninteresting. Shirky seems to have taken the modern adage that people won't read
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anything longer than a short blog post and assumed that the problem was writing that's dense and not self-referential enough. He uses the lecture- and speech-writer's tool of constantly referring back to points and examples, which makes a reader feel as if she's reading the same text over and over again. The writing was so dumbed-down that I found myself unable to read more than a few pages without my mind trying to find other things to occupy itself (speaking of Flickr.. I wonder whether I should re-tag all my vacation photos...). Show Less
LibraryThing member sleepydumpling
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.
LibraryThing member Ethany
This is a great book if you're looking for an overview of the global social movement that is giving rise to social media tools and practices that now surround us. Makes it clear that social media is not a fad and really is not about the technologies, it's a political movement in that it's about
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people coming to a new understanding of how we want to live. Show Less
LibraryThing member erulehto81
This is a great book detailing thoughts on why social networks work, how community and professions are being redefined in the web 2.0 age, and what all this means for our society. I've never read anything by Shirky, but his ability to provide real world examples using products and sites we're all
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familiar with makes the sociology content in the book easy to understand, digest, and apply to my own experiences. A must read for anyone interested understanding the social web environment. Show Less
LibraryThing member pjhogan
Dynamics of community in web. Web lowers the bar for collaboration. The rationale for organization and the heft it requires to direct resources has shifted, at least when it comes to coordinating efforts. Power curve. Miniscule portion of users creates most of the content but that's OK.
Dramatic
Interesting story on Nupedia, predecessor to wikipedia. Key to wikipedia's success was making it easy to contribute.
Chapter 11 is important and practical. Promise, Tools, Bargain.
Promise creates the desire to participate. (Would be the purpose/mission in ALA Connect. Needs balance. Like the Linus Torvald Linux example, neither too provisional or too sweeping
Tools influence the kind of interaction, but culture of group is also influences. Wiki, email, mailing list, all different.
Bargain. Most complex, comes last. Need promise for Rules of interaction, what's in it for users. What you can expect from others, what others can expect from you. For example, users are less likely to contribute when a corporation profits (of if that's the solely perceived benefit) LA Times hosted editorial wiki is an example.
Duncan Watts and Steve Strogatz research on "Small World network." Small groups are densely connected. Large groups are sparsely connected (can't scale at everyone to everyone). To scale you connect small groups. Requires a small number of highly connected people, as in Malcom Gladwell's "connectors."
Dramatic
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changes in communication tools: 1) printing press and moveable type; 2) telephone and telegraph; 3) recorded content (music, then movies); 3) harnessing of radio signals (for broadcast of radio, then TV); 4) now, many-to-many, mass amateurization communication of Internet.Interesting story on Nupedia, predecessor to wikipedia. Key to wikipedia's success was making it easy to contribute.
Chapter 11 is important and practical. Promise, Tools, Bargain.
Promise creates the desire to participate. (Would be the purpose/mission in ALA Connect. Needs balance. Like the Linus Torvald Linux example, neither too provisional or too sweeping
Tools influence the kind of interaction, but culture of group is also influences. Wiki, email, mailing list, all different.
Bargain. Most complex, comes last. Need promise for Rules of interaction, what's in it for users. What you can expect from others, what others can expect from you. For example, users are less likely to contribute when a corporation profits (of if that's the solely perceived benefit) LA Times hosted editorial wiki is an example.
Duncan Watts and Steve Strogatz research on "Small World network." Small groups are densely connected. Large groups are sparsely connected (can't scale at everyone to everyone). To scale you connect small groups. Requires a small number of highly connected people, as in Malcom Gladwell's "connectors."
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LibraryThing member slothman
A good summary of new trends in our world made possible by lowering the cost of collaboration using Internet technologies. Shirky points out successes and failures in venues ranging from justice to politics to open source software, and does a good job of explaining why they succeeded and failed.
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The book is a good companion to Howard Rheingold's Smart Mobs. It only shows what has happened thus far, though, and provides little in the way of clues as to the future; it's a good survey, but I had hoped for more insight into where the trend is going. Show Less
LibraryThing member robboulter
After reading this book I had the following thought. If you view yourself socially it takes the edge off your ego. You may not be the 'best' in your field but your contribution is enough. Just a nice thought to share.
LibraryThing member ambookgeek
This is the kind of book that every teacher, school administrator, librarian, and school/district computer services manager should read and consider. As an educator, what I liked most about the book is that Shirky talks not so much about the technologies themselves as much as some of the ways that
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society and institutions may change due to the growth and mass adoption of a variety of communication technologies. This is a great read! Show Less
LibraryThing member Katya0133
It's always hard to say whether books about cutting-edge technology or social changes will age well and this book is no different. However, I have often found Clay Shirky's observations about internet culture to be clear, incisive, and free of the hype that often surrounds new technology. This book
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continues in that vein, with insightful and thought-provoking observations on social collaboration: what's new, what's not, what works and what doesn't. Show Less
LibraryThing member amf0001
Interesting book. A bit dry, a bit like someone's masters thesis rejigged into a book, but with enough engageing ideas to make it worth the slog. An overview on how the internet is changing fundamental ways in which certain businesses and all organizations work. Lots of comments on how once the
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cost of something goes down (eg publishing) it opens up to everyone. Before because the costs were so high, we chose experts to weed out before stuff was published, now because the cost is minimal, we print first and then let the readers winnow things down. Lots of good ideas on how difficult it was to pass on info, now it's just a click, and how groups used to require quite a bit of energy to form, and now it's email chains. The world as we know it is changing... Show Less
LibraryThing member nnschiller
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
So that leads me to think that perhaps what I like best about Shirky's work is his particular genius at finding interesting and revealing examples from which he extrapolates his key insights. In Here Comes Everybody, he tells the story of the lost phone, uses a wonderful comparison of reading social networking to hanging out in the mall. (It's not over-sharing, it's over-listening. On the web, someone like me can complain about vapid noise on Facebook, but if I were at the mall listening in to teens telling their stories it would be clear that I was the creepy one and the kids are just being kids.) From chapter to chapter, Shirky finds good examples and uses them to tease out what he thinks are the key principles.
The third candidate for "Why Nick like Clay Shirky so damn much" is that I tend to agree with his assertions. The printing press *IS* the best comparison for the read/write web. More *is* different. (We're both Internet exceptionalists.)
So, whether it is the quality of his insight, the power of his examples, or the persuasiveness of his conclusions, I tend to be a Shirky fan. Here Comes Everybody is an excellent example of his work and a must-read for anyone trying to make sense of what the current (or formerly current) state of communication technology is doing to us as a society.
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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 is his particular genius at finding interesting and revealing examples from which he extrapolates his key insights. In Here Comes Everybody, he tells the story of the lost phone, uses a wonderful comparison of reading social networking to hanging out in the mall. (It's not over-sharing, it's over-listening. On the web, someone like me can complain about vapid noise on Facebook, but if I were at the mall listening in to teens telling their stories it would be clear that I was the creepy one and the kids are just being kids.) From chapter to chapter, Shirky finds good examples and uses them to tease out what he thinks are the key principles.
The third candidate for "Why Nick like Clay Shirky so damn much" is that I tend to agree with his assertions. The printing press *IS* the best comparison for the read/write web. More *is* different. (We're both Internet exceptionalists.)
So, whether it is the quality of his insight, the power of his examples, or the persuasiveness of his conclusions, I tend to be a Shirky fan. Here Comes Everybody is an excellent example of his work and a must-read for anyone trying to make sense of what the current (or formerly current) state of communication technology is doing to us as a society.
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LibraryThing member lisapeet
A good examination of the ways new social tools have changed our society and will continue to do so. Although the book is already more than four years old, an eternity in the world of Internet commentary, most of what he has to say is still valid—and because his tone is measured and he avoids
Shirky takes off from the concept of Coasian economics, market theory originated by Ronald Coase in 1937 that looked at the contractual costs and benefits of hierarchical organizations and their advantages over the free market. The premise here is that because online communications have lowered the cost of gathering groups of people together—whether in money, effort, time, materials, or manpower—this radically alters all sorts of equations throughout society. He cycles through a series of anecdotal scenarios to make his points, explaining them clearly and relevantly, without jargon; the examples are well-picked and illustrate his ideas without being heavy-handed. And his commentary is open-ended enough that you can sit back afterward and extrapolate on how it bears on the wired world of 2012, what works and fails online, and why. It's smart and thoughtful, and still relevant—no mean feat for an Internet sociology study.
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gee-whizzing, it's not hard to imagine where he would have gone with his ideas in 2012.Shirky takes off from the concept of Coasian economics, market theory originated by Ronald Coase in 1937 that looked at the contractual costs and benefits of hierarchical organizations and their advantages over the free market. The premise here is that because online communications have lowered the cost of gathering groups of people together—whether in money, effort, time, materials, or manpower—this radically alters all sorts of equations throughout society. He cycles through a series of anecdotal scenarios to make his points, explaining them clearly and relevantly, without jargon; the examples are well-picked and illustrate his ideas without being heavy-handed. And his commentary is open-ended enough that you can sit back afterward and extrapolate on how it bears on the wired world of 2012, what works and fails online, and why. It's smart and thoughtful, and still relevant—no mean feat for an Internet sociology study.
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LibraryThing member CarloA
An interesting overview of how the online world has been changed by social tools like wikipedia. It offers also many examples of how those tools interact with the "real world", dispelling -if it were necessary- the media-induced idea that "cyberspace" and everyday life don't mix.
It is a good read
It is a good read
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for those that want to discover the realities of social tools and social software and also interesting for those that are already familiar with these things as it offers a way of thinking about those from different perspectives. Show Less
LibraryThing member shannonkearns
Enjoyed the epilogue the best: really synthesized the rest. I expected this book to be more practical and so when he drove home the practical at the end I appreciated it.
Subjects
Awards
Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year (Longlist — 2008)
Guardian 100 Greatest Non-Fiction (Politics)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2008-02-28
ISBN
1594201536 / 9781594201530