Shirky continues in Chapter 4 with an introduction that publications and filtering become separate processes and that filtering takes place after publishing usually in a group/social/community sessions. I had my own definition of "user generated content" before reading this book, and Shirky brings up some excellent points. Just because someone creates something on their computer does not alone make it user generated, because then works by well known authors as they scribe their novels, those novels would be considered user generated. He describes the content as a group phenomenon and from amateur users. One of the examples like a gallery for this content to be displayed is MySpace where users create posts and blogs for a small group of people. Shirky asking, "Why would anyone put such drivel out in public?" The answer of course was, "they're not talking to you."
In the online community there is no ruling authority, only a group consciousness that weighs the scale of justice. This makes me think of the current Trayvon Martin case in Florida where the group is calling for justice when the governing body doesn't seem to be doing anything. The thing about the case is that it's expanding farther than just the city, or even state. This event has garnered the attention of the nation in a call to action. In essence Skirky ends the chapter by saying that never before have groups had the ability or freedom to say and do so many things. With so many participating online, there is a removal of obstacles for that same participation by non experts.
Just because people can participate more freely, doesn't mean that people do. Shirky describes a "caring" that draws people to participate, whether it be personal or for the greater good. These days people are using social networking to organize, but the social network didn't enable the action, it merely removed the obstacles. In the same movement, the interaction becomes increased and more frequent. The same action that could have taken weeks to mobilize a nation now takes days, even hours to capture their attention.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Thursday, March 1, 2012
#10 Shirky Ch 1-3
Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody: the power of organizing without Organizing begins with a saga about a lost phone and the ten days it took to recover and return it to its rightful owners. An astounding use of resources through digital means and amassing a crowd that helped find and apprehend the thief. There is immense group power that was utilized given the right tools. As the saga showed, some sites weren't equipped to handle the growing demand of usership and thus failed.
There are many things that the story helped to highlight including the expanse of the internet, the attention garnered by people's sense of justice, the ability for one-man to dispense this news through his social network of friends, the tools of the web, and the scrutiny that we could now be facing. As the "theif" found out, she was scruitized for her actions that weren't perhaps ethically pure, but they weren't illegal in the eyes of the law, she was thus guilty in the eyes of the public.
The thing about this initial story, is that it's unrepeatable, it's not something that the average Jo could do every time a phone was lost. What Shirky highlights in this chapter is the socialness of people and the new shift in technology. To report a stole phone the example went to the police, but it was the detective work of hundreds of others who really helped solve the situation. There are many more options to work withing besides traditional frameworks. Police stations will continue to exist, but they are not as strong as the collective group of people out for justice as shown in the example. It's not always that the police aren't willing to help, but don't have the finances or personel to help in a city of millions.
Chapter two states that sharing anchors community. With a growing number of connections made in groups, the harder it is to connect with each one of it's members. Shirky suggests that a community is much easier to maintain through sharing, cooperation, and collective action. Of these, sharing, involves the fewest demands on a community, cooperation involves changing your behavior to fit with those in the group to create a group identity. Collaboration in a community means that no one particular person takes credit for the efforts, collective action takes the collective of the group to partake. He shares these group dynamics through stories about photographers, and trains.
Chapter 3 - Everyone is a media outlet. Much like in the first chapter, we each have the capability to share news, creating individual media outlets. Shirky describes the phenomenon as mass amateurization. Competition with local print newspapers were thought originally to be national papers, but instead, the internet has become it's chief competitor. No longer is the job of reporting news left up to just the professional journalist, but everyone can report the news. The other side of this is that people get to decide what news they feel is important, not just the news that mainstream media presents.
I think this quote by Scott Bradner sums it up quite nicely, "The internet means you don't have to convince anyone else that something is a good idea before trying it."
There are many things that the story helped to highlight including the expanse of the internet, the attention garnered by people's sense of justice, the ability for one-man to dispense this news through his social network of friends, the tools of the web, and the scrutiny that we could now be facing. As the "theif" found out, she was scruitized for her actions that weren't perhaps ethically pure, but they weren't illegal in the eyes of the law, she was thus guilty in the eyes of the public.
The thing about this initial story, is that it's unrepeatable, it's not something that the average Jo could do every time a phone was lost. What Shirky highlights in this chapter is the socialness of people and the new shift in technology. To report a stole phone the example went to the police, but it was the detective work of hundreds of others who really helped solve the situation. There are many more options to work withing besides traditional frameworks. Police stations will continue to exist, but they are not as strong as the collective group of people out for justice as shown in the example. It's not always that the police aren't willing to help, but don't have the finances or personel to help in a city of millions.
Chapter two states that sharing anchors community. With a growing number of connections made in groups, the harder it is to connect with each one of it's members. Shirky suggests that a community is much easier to maintain through sharing, cooperation, and collective action. Of these, sharing, involves the fewest demands on a community, cooperation involves changing your behavior to fit with those in the group to create a group identity. Collaboration in a community means that no one particular person takes credit for the efforts, collective action takes the collective of the group to partake. He shares these group dynamics through stories about photographers, and trains.
Chapter 3 - Everyone is a media outlet. Much like in the first chapter, we each have the capability to share news, creating individual media outlets. Shirky describes the phenomenon as mass amateurization. Competition with local print newspapers were thought originally to be national papers, but instead, the internet has become it's chief competitor. No longer is the job of reporting news left up to just the professional journalist, but everyone can report the news. The other side of this is that people get to decide what news they feel is important, not just the news that mainstream media presents.
I think this quote by Scott Bradner sums it up quite nicely, "The internet means you don't have to convince anyone else that something is a good idea before trying it."
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