Sharing is Caring: Online sharing creates civic & communal value

First of all, Clay Shirky was wearing the three wolf moon T-shirt which in and of itself deserves a +5 rating, but his talk deserves much more. His talk was primarily about how our culture is now deviating from the social norms we were once accustomed to because we now have the tools (technology/social media) to change how we share information publicly. The panel 'Monkeys and Internet Access: Sharing, Human Nature, and Digital Data' was super timely, expoloring the values of civic sharing online and the impacts that this has on our modern society.  

Biggest Takeaway

• Example) Napster: The company changed the motivation behind sharing information.

• Example) Wikipedia (free) vs. Brittanica (pay for access - a reference work you can't refer to)

Co-creating/co-authoring with one another online is creating value that is both communal and civic. 
Changing culture by making the arguement that co-creation is doing public good rather than harm.
 

• Example) Health Care: Patientslikeme.com

Their 'Openess philosophy' makes the claim that if people keep their medical information private we are losing a potential public good, but we all have to do it at the same time (why sharing is good).

Best / Worst Quotes

"It was like Bittorrent that didn't work very well." (explaining Napster to NYU students)

"It's like keeping the box that you recieve your Amazon products shipped in." (referencing his CD collection)
 

What wasn't said that should have been?

N/A

Sightings

Three-wolf moon T-shirt
 

If this were my event....

People would have been really bored. I am humbled by Shirky's breadth of knowledge about the impacts of the Internet in a modern society.