Here Comes Everybody! – Review

Clay Shirky, adjunct professor at NYU’s graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program, has written extensively about the social and economic effects of Internet technologies.  His writings have appeared in Business 2.0, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, and Wired.  In his book, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, Shirky argues that the ubiquity of communication tools – phones, computers, e-mail, instant messages, webpages – and their integration into society has changed how we come together, how we get things done, and who we are. Through his introduction of social and economic concepts, his ample use of examples, and his ability to look both at the positive and negative ramifications of social tools, Shirky successfully explores the symbiotic relationship between the Internet and society.  He highlights how we shape social technologies, how they in turn transform the way we communicate, and how that interaction redefines the very fabric of society.

Shirky first analyses the complexities of group interaction.  He introduces the Birthday Paradox to explain how the complexity of maintaining communication within a group of people rises faster than the number of people in the group.  Because of this, interaction becomes unsustainable due to high transaction costs, requiring the establishment of hierarchical managerial structures (Coase Theorem). Shirky maintains that new social tools decrease those limitations and in turn allow for “action by loosely structured groups, operating without managerial direction and outside the profit motive”(Pg. 47). He then goes on to explore the effects of the essential advantage created by new social tools: “ridiculously easy group-forming.”  Shirky structures his supporting evidence around the idea that there are varying degrees of complexity and difficulty in group undertakings, mainly sharing, cooperation, and collective action.  Shirky first looks at ease of sharing and how it has resulted in the mass amateurization of efforts previously reserved for media professionals.  Here he also explores the merging of personal communication and publishing, which has resulted in a shift from pre-publishing professional filtering to post-publishing social filtering.  He then takes a look at collaborative production as facilitated by flexible social tools that allow for wildly differing levels of contribution.  Finally, Shirky considers collective action facilitated by social tools, its successes, its failures, and most importantly, its challenge to existing institutions and ultimately modern society.

One of the strengths of this book lies in Shirky’s decision to focus on present events.  Doing so has allowed him to scrutinize the social and economic implications of ubiquitous connectivity.  He speaks about changes that are taking place in our time and are relevant to society.  For example, he addresses mass amateurization and how it affects journalism, media, and publishing.  His exploration of this phenomenon is pertinent, helpful, and insightful in that it gets to the core of a change that will radically transform society.  The world was never the same after the printing press was introduced.  My children might never see a newspaper as anything other than a historical artifact at a museum.  Nevertheless, I would argue – and I believe Shirky does as well – that this shift is natural and ultimately positive.  Journalism and publishing became professions due to an accidental scarcity created by the costs involved in publishing.  However, now that previous inefficiencies have been replaced by ubiquitous connectivity, anyone with an Internet connection can be a publisher.  Shirky eloquently describes the pain and the gain resulting from this shift when he writes, “just as movable type raise the value of being able to read and write even as it destroyed the scribal tradition, globally free publishing is making public speech and action more valuable, even as it absolute abundance diminishes the specialness of professional publishing.” (pg. 79)  It is unfortunate that journalists and publishers are being affected negatively by social technologies, nevertheless, would we rather artificially maintain their profit margins high, while depriving others of the opportunity to engage in public speech and action?

I was particularly drawn to this book because it explores who we are.  Shirky examines our basic human instinct to come together and connects it to social technologies. In one of my favorite quotes from the book he introduces love as a factor in online collaborative efforts when he states, “we are used to a world where little things happened for love and big things happen for money… now, though, we can do big things for love.”(Pg. 104) Now that’s a statement I can get behind, not just because I want it to be true, but because I came to regard it as possible while reading this book.

Here Comes Everybody is packed full with diverse examples that strengthen Shirky’s arguments.  His point is that social tools allow for not only more, but also new forms of interaction.  For example, while in the past mass action might only have taken place in response to gross political injustice, now massive group collaboration can take place for simple things, such as getting someone’s phone back.  Furthermore, Shirky also recognizes that not all groups and initiatives are positive or even successful. He does not attempt to portray a communications utopia.  Shirky recognizes that, when it comes to collective action, most efforts ultimately fail and some lead to negative results.

While Shirky studies the effects of ubiquitous connectivity, again and again he looks both at the successes and the failures.  He does not shy away from any sticky argument; he acknowledges both sides and puts them to the test.  Shirky successfully explores the symbiotic relationship between the Internet and society.  He highlights how we shape social technologies, how they in turn transform the way we communicate, and how that interaction redefines the very fabric of society.  While I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Internet technologies, economics, and sociology, I believe this book would be particularly edifying for young people.  In his epilogue Shirky argues that “the future belongs to those who take the present for granted.”  Throughout school kids and teenagers are told they are the future of the world; I believe it might help them to see it from Shirky’s perspective. 

Shirky, C. (2008). Here’s Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. New York: Penguin Group.

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