1 rating (3.00 avg)
1 review

Stephanie

Add friend

Stephanie’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (0)

currently-reading‎ (1)

read‎ (0)

Stats | More…

Stephanie is Currently Reading

Stephanie rated a book liked it

Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations

by Clay Shirky

bookshelves: currently-reading

read in November 2008

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Stephanie said: " What Stood Out Most:
When I was reading Clay Shirky’s book Here Comes Everybody- the power of organizing without organization, what stood out most for me was the idea of the “power of group action, given the right tools” (Page 7). Throughout this book What Stood Out Most:
When I was reading Clay Shirky’s book Here Comes Everybody- the power of organizing without organization, what stood out most for me was the idea of the “power of group action, given the right tools” (Page 7). Throughout this book Shriky shows exactly how powerful groups of people are when they use tools to help them. A young woman looses her cell phone and uses the power of blogs, web pages and e-mail to get it back and to catch the thief. Citizens of the country of Belarus use blogs to organize flash mobs who participate in peaceful protests against government. Protests on college campuses are organized through Facebook groups. Countless numbers of people change entries in Wikipedia every day. Then they start their own wikis and use them in private and public ways. These are just a few examples of the power of group action through social networking and technology that can be found throughout this book.

Theme:
This book focuses on human beings being social creatures and how we use that social nature to collaborate and work together. Shirky states, “We are living in the middle of a remarkable increase in our ability to share, to cooperate with one another, and to take collective action, all outside the framework of traditional institutions and organizations” (Page 20-21). The book shows how people can join together and make a difference, sometimes with little planning. All it takes is one person to start a blog or wiki on a topic that hits home with a particular demographic of people and soon changes are happening.

Reaction:
I liked how Clay Shirky used real life stories to show his points. Typically I am more of a fiction person. I like books with stories. I do not like reading “text book” writing. Normally I would not go to the bookstore and purchase a book like this one. Because the author used interesting stories it made the book easier to read and more interesting. These real life accounts helped him illustrate his points in a way that was easier for me to understand. I did not loose interest as quickly as I thought I would.

Shirky makes great points that really provoke the reader to think about the the digital world around us. I agree with his ideas and think that he did a good job explaining them.

Connection:
Social networking and organizing online has now become the norm. Everyone, from every age group, is participating in this. Students are on Facebook and MySpace. They blog and participate in wikis. Schools cannot ignore this anymore. We must teach our children how to handle this appropriately. Shirky mentions one incident where a newspaper’s wiki was vandalized so much that it was taken down almost immediately after it was created. At some point schools are going to have to take responsibility for teaching student how to participate in these internet organizations in a mature and responsible way so that incidents like this one occur less frequently. Ultimately our students need to know how to behave in groups, especially on the Internet, so that things that they post or participate in do not negatively affect them later on in life. They need to be responsible contributors to society. High schools may need to start thinking about classes that will teach students these skills.

Conclusion:
I would give this book four out of five stars. It really makes the reader think about how our world organizes online and how that organization has the power to change our world. I would recommend this book to anyone who is new to social networking or who is a little put off by it. The book definitely shows the advantages of social networking and organization. It demonstrates how easy it is to be a part of an organization the has the potential to make meaningful change. I also think that teachers and administrators should read this book. It will teach them about all the possible ways that their students are using (or could use in the future) social networking and online organizing and may help them to see that this is not all bad and scary. It might help them be more open to bring some of it into their curriculum. ...more "

Nov 28, 2008 10:10AM · see review