What is a revolution? According to Clay Shirky, author of the eye-opening book “Here Comes Everybody,” a revolution can be described as a change in society that dictates the way we think, act and behave. Specifically, the development and integration of new media technologies into society, has spearheaded some of the greatest revolutions in our history. This can be seen through the introduction of the Internet, which has jumpstarted a digital revolution within our own generation.
The printing press, the telephone, and broadcast also pioneered revolutions of their own kind, but according to Shirky, it was the Internet has afforded us the opportunity to access a multimedia forum, holding the contents of previous revolutions in one communal place. It is here that people can consume and distribute media including music, movies and conversations, all in one location, unlike any other medium in society.
“For the first time, young people are watching less television than their elders. They’re substituting computers, mobile phones and other internet-enabled devices, and generating media instead of just consuming it.” (Clay Shirky, The Globalist)
Shirky claims the Internet has caused what he calls, the largest increase in human expressive capability in history, rivaling the introduction of the printing press and telephone. Among the different media revolutions, the Internet is the first to naturally promote group-forming, which is the foundation of this digitally-revolutionizing book. The Internet moves us into a world of two-way groups, where consumers are producers and producers are consumers. According to Shirky, collaboration is the backbone to this social transformation.
“Collaborative production, where people have to coordinate with one another to get anything done, is considerably harder than simple sharing, but the results can be more profound. New tools allow large groups to collaborate, by taking advantage of nonfinancial motivations and by allowing for wildly differing levels of contribution.”
Collaboration requires the synchronization of individuals within a group to successfully build a multimedia platform. Wikipedia is one such example, showing collaboration at its finest, but since we have already had an in depth discussion about Wikipedia and as not to deviate too much from Shirky, I will spare you the Wikipedia shpeel, but please consider the importance in terms of collaboration.
Now shift your attention to another facet of the revolution; sharing. Where do I begin? According to Shirky a shift has occurred in society with regards to the exchange of information. Prior to this idea of “group-forming,” people would congregate together in an effort to share information, but the Internet has in essence flipped this relationship and given us forums to share information first. Now, people can share, and then aggregate. Essentially, the Internet has allowed you to discover who you have things in common with, and therefore has made the sharing process, a platform for coordination. Web sites such as Flickr, Facebook, and Youtube, promote this kind of reversed-sharing and have thus lowered the barriers of entry.
“Flickr is the source of sharing. What it did instead was to let the users label (or tag) their photos as a way of arranging them. When two or more photos adopted the same tag, those photos were automatically linked. The users were linked as well; the shared tag became a potential stepping stone from one user to another, adding a social dimension to the simple act of viewing.” (pg 33)
Flickr is just one of many group-sharing Web sites that promotes a broad public interest, allowing people to aggregate themselves among one another. It essentially engages groups.
Not too long ago, I came face-to-face (or should I say screen-to-screen) with the idea Shirky refers to as reverse-sharing. I was fortunate enough to have been given the opportunity to spend a semester in Barcelona, Spain and prior to my departure, I stumbled onto a Facebook group called “Barcelona Spring 2010.” It was through this forum that I connected with a multitude of people in the same position as myself: anxious, excited, and petrified of the unknowns. This Facebook page, allowed the collective group to post photographs, articles, YouTube videos and comments and concerns, about a common interest. In this case, the commonality was Barcelona. This is Shirky’s idea of sharing at its finest. The posting on Facebook came first, and connecting under a common interest came second.
Everything mentioned thus far has been centered around the sole idea that cooperation among a group is essential in successfully using the Internet as a tool of communication, and it is through this idea that collective action was born. Collective action is the cooperation of a group to collectively produce change.
“Information sharing produces shared awareness among the participants, and collaborative production relies on shared creation, but collective action creates shared responsibility, by tying the users identity to the identity of the group.” (pg 51)
Facebook promotes collective action, as seen through its many targeted pages. If you choose to “like” something, you are given updates and access to information you otherwise would not receive. You can essentially communicate with people of similar interests on these targeted pages, and through this communication you can develop a “shared vision strong enough to bind the group together.”
Collective action is thus the culmination of Shirky’s ideas, as it begins with a technological revolution and ends with a social one.
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