Clay Shirky – Power of Social Media

Aug 11, 2009

This is a must-watch presentation (15 minutes) for anyone who wants to understand the power and potential for social transformation offered by social media. Shirky outlines the fundamental changes taking place in communications today and places them in a larger historical context. As he says, “What matters here isn’t technical capital, it’s social capital. These [social media] tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring,” i.e., until everyone knows about them and most people have access to and know how to use them.

Clay Shirky’s consulting focuses on the rising usefulness of decentralized technologies such as peer-to-peer, wireless networks, social software and open-source development. New technologies are enabling new kinds of cooperative structures to flourish as a way of getting things done in business, science, the arts and elsewhere, as an alternative to centralized and institutional structures, which he sees as self-limiting.

Related posts:

1. Social Media Camp Seattle
2. Social Media and Social Transformation via the Internet: The Cluetrain Manifesto
3. Mark McLaren and McBuzz on Seattle Social Media Profiles
4. Add Social Media Buttons to Your WordPress Website