Category: Collaboration

“The old view of online as a separate space was an incident of history”(32). This quote can be referred to the story on the Korean market on the U.S. beef contaminated public protest. When reading this story it reminded me of the incident “Occupy Wall Street Issue”, because of the large audience it gain. One of the interesting viewpoints made from introducing to the readers this event is that media has changed and provided new ways in which individuals connect and communicate on political and social issues. Through these medias there comments become public, where thousands or millions of users are thinking or agree with your comment or statement and thats how a issues may get resolved. However, in order for this to occur we need group effort. For instance in the Korean candlelight vigil situation, the citizens and young female students  who were too young to vote did  turned to an online bulletin called DBSK that allowed them to publish there and give their views and comments on this disturbing situation on negotiation on beef imports. It gave them an “opportunity to discuss whatever they wanted , including politics.”(33). This created the population to grow and take part on this situation.

Clay’s purpose in introducing this topic was to show that the old view online and the real world were separated in the past and that the online population today is very different from the online population back then. Public media and personal media was separated in the past, today we have “computerlike phones”(37) and computers that allow us to stay connected with one another; which demonstrates that by the media providing the public domain an opportunity, it can make a change by a lot.

One topic that was highlighted in chapter two  that relates to the Korean candlelight vigil was the race between the government and the people who were motivated to use the media as a way to get their voices heard. Until the government had to give in. This shows that the media’s opportunity to give the public a place to share their thoughts and opinions can make an impact on the government and make a change to resolve an issue.

Chapter three focuses and introduces the topic of Globalization how these new social tools that offer the opportunity to unite and organize events and foundations like in the case of Josh Groban where a few a his fans organized a foundation for him in attempt to give him a gift for his birthday. As a result, the foundation was a success. Through this story we can see that these social media tools have provided a public huge audience to get involved in group(s)s or be part of group(s) that define you or taht you feel comfortable. The story on Josh Groban also illustrates that fact being global or globalizing and event does not precisely need to be large for it to be a success. However, it should have a subject matter that motivates others to become a part of it.

 

“Collaborative production, where people have to coordinate with one another to get anything done, is consistently harder than simple sharing, but the results can be more profound”(109). In Clay Shirky’s “Here Comes Everybody” chapter five, Shirky discusses the founding of Wikipedia and uses it as a prime example of collaborative productive. One of the topics that Shirky mentions that I found very interesting was the predictable imbalance participation with social network. This is something that caught my attention because I didn’t  to realize the fact that individuals usually a tiny proportion of contributors do the greatest amount of the work. However, there are reasons for this behavior.

One of the reasons may be that “many more people are willing to make a bad article better than are willing to start a good article from scratch”(122). According to Shirky’s interesting observation with the “asphalt” Wiki page example, no one needs to know everything about asphalt or about the Wiki page being created for it to be  superior; which is the reason why Wikipedia is so successful. But this success was accomplished through the use of “free to say and do so many things with so many other people” (123).  Wikipedia provides a sort of freedom that attracts individuals to participate in such a tool. Shirky elaborates on some of the topics mentioned in class on how Wikipedia is a network in which a lot of editing occurs, which can lead to false information. Not all improvement may pertain to enhancing the article.  However, to Wikipedia’s benefit this is not a problem because “bad changes can be rooted out faster, but also partly because human knowledge is provisional”(119). This shows how a pool of resources or join forces can get things done when they work together. Furthermore, this bring us to the topic Shirky  introduces called “Predictable Imbalance Participation”. An example given by Shirky when discussing predicatable imbalance was the asphalt article and the 7 july 2005 London bombings, and how there Wikipedia pages received many contributors. This imbalance between the individuals contribute and the few users who don’t contribute can affect a Wikipedia in a great way because “fewer than two percent of the Wikipedia users ever contribute, yet that is enough to create profound value for millions of users”(125). This imbalance can be very surprising due to the fact that everyone has the equal opportunity to contribute, yet there are a few that choose not to.

I believe that one of Shirky’s motives in this chapter was to discuss the key fact that as long as these social tools hand freedom, there may be a large amount of the average users, that can lead to a continue in growth like the social tool Wikipedia. However, this may occur because today individuals are quick to participate in social networks that provide non-mangerial obligation.

In chapter six, Shirky’s main focus is how the use of sharing information and effective teaming can make collective action possible. One of the observations she discusses to illustrate a better a picture of how collective action can make a change is through the cases of the two Catholic priest John Geoghan and James R. Porter. Collective action is depicted in Shirky’s example through the join force of VOTF (Voice of the Faithful). Shirky also makes it clear that through all of the daily tools ( cellphones, emails, blogs, and all of the other social networks), “Revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new technologies – it happens when society adopts new behaviors”(160). Furthermore, I agree with Shirky because it is true that technology has allowed us to intertwined or connect with one another, and new opportunities. But  these advantages that technology brings is dependent on our  desire to use it. If we don’t support it then society “revolution” (uprising) does not occur. The VOTF collective action is similar to chapter one’s case with the lost cell phone and Evan’s collective action using a website to get the word out into the public.

The book Here Comes Everybody by Clary Shirky covers many interesting topics and stories that Shirky examines in order to relate it to, social media and even  management in organizations. Shirky purpose in doing this is to  show us how these situations impact information, and organizations. One of Shirky’s argument’s in relation to chapter one’s story with the lost phone is that social networking, but precisely  the internet has changed society’s behavior in many ways. For instance, Shirky’s purpose in introducing us with this story was to depict the change in the media, and how if it wasn’t for the internet many of the situations and communication occurring between individual people or groups of people would of never existed. Moreover, these relations among these individuals create the forms of  networks that exist today. The telephone story also showed that if it was for the webpage created and the public’s interest in the situation and viewpoints on the situation, Ivanna (the female who lost her phone) would of never of received her phone back. Furthermore, it shows that the individuals involved in these social media’s like it because it requires no managerial,and because its free and quick. However, one important viewpoint that Shirky makes is that “group action gives human society its particular character and anything that changes the way groups get things done will affect society as a whole”(23). I believe that this quote is very true, and can be proven in our everyday interaction with Facebook, and Blogs and how we receive breaking news at much faster pace than back than, when America media companies were not using the internet to distribute let’s say online articles. In comparison to this it has been proven that group effort through these networks, has not been something new to society. “We have always relied on group effort for survival; even before the invention of agriculture, hunting and gathering… labor”(15).