Comments on: Clay Shirky’s book talk

By: Steve’s Tech Journal

Steve’s Tech Journal — Mon, 19 May 2008 22:05:08 +0000

[...] took some live notes (it was nice to stop by Joho again, it’s been awhile but fun to drop in on old friends). [...]

By: C. M. Barons

C. M. Barons — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:41:31 +0000

In the Midst Of
by C. M. Barons

http://www.inthemidstof.info

http://nawpublishing.com/bookp....._midst.htm

By: businessmodel innovation _ design » Here comes everybody

businessmodel innovation _ design » Here comes everybody — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:15:16 +0000

[...] there’s also David Weinberger who was live blogging Shirky’s book presentation at Harvard, extracting the key points about group forming, collaboration and the effects of social [...]

By: Weblogg-ed » A “Publish Then Filter World”

Weblogg-ed » A “Publish Then Filter World” — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:33:51 +0000

[...] David Weinberger was live blogging a presentation by Shirky at Harvard last week, and there were a couple “shift-capturing” phrases that caught my eye. First, Shirky was talking about the difficulties one of his NYU students was having running a health and beauty discussion board at an online magazine site for teenage girls because they couldn’t “get the pro-anorexia girls to shut up with tips about how to avoid eating.” That’s an effect of the Net, the idea that group forming is “ridiculously” easy, that we can’t stop it, and that “all we can do is watch and act.” [...]

By: Larry Irons

Larry Irons — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 16:30:24 +0000

“Sharing, conversation, collaboration, collective action are rungs on a ladder…”

If I remember the sociological research on collective action, don’t social movements come next?

By: Keith Hopper

Keith Hopper — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:34:42 +0000

I was also in attendance. I think Clay’s point about the two examples of Flash Mobs was pointing to two forms of collective political action – in different cultural contexts, one in response to bourgeoisie acceptance of media and behavior in public space, the other a response to an oppressive dictatorship.

Clay spun a bunch of additional stuff off of the Belarus example, like pointing out that an organized group doesn’t really exist until it flashes, and people ‘become’ terrorists only when they are arrested by secret police (using the example of showing up at October square with instructions only to smile at others). Good stuff.

My twitterings from the event aggregated here: http://tinyurl.com/2e5×3f

By: Clay Shirky at Berkman Center - graysky

Clay Shirky at Berkman Center - graysky — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 06:06:26 +0000

[...] group forming affects sharing, conversation, collaboration and collective action. David Weinberger took detailed notes of the talk. Very interesting talk, and I liked his answer to my question about possible downsides [...]

By: Jay Fienberg

Jay Fienberg — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 06:02:49 +0000

Thanks, David.

By: davidw

davidw — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 04:00:49 +0000

Jay, one point Clay extracted: The use of the social tools depends on the political context. Another point: the event was prompted by media and resulted in more media. But I think they were also just examples of collective action.

By: Jay Fienberg

Jay Fienberg — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 03:06:25 +0000

(First, thanks again for publishing your notes on these talks–always very appreciated!)

Can you explain more what is Shirky’s point in telling the story about the Flash Mobs moving from NYC hipsters to Belarus?

This story is in the notes to both talks, but I don’t grok the specific point.