Here Comes Everybody

“The Power of Organizing Without Organizations” is the tagline for this book by Clay Shirky. Before I began reading this book, I thought that social change was plausible through online initiatives, but I had no idea how extensive the changes could be, or to what extent this had already begun. I certainly had no idea that these groups could be self-stearing. Here, the author makes the assertion that there are all kinds of things about social media that nobody could have expected. The author talks about every internet-spawned social phenomenon, from the “ice cream flash mobs” in Belarus, to the fund raising efforts of Josh Groban’s fans (Grobanites). In case study, after case study, Shirky attributes these changes to pre-existing social dynamics superimposed over the technology of web2, rather than being the effect of the technology itself. If you’re still not convinced that social media is anything but a fad, read this book. It is a difficult book to put down, and it may inspire you to start a meme of your own.