Review of "Here Comes Everybody"

On Ars Tech over here. In Summary:

In 304 accessible pages, Shirky explores the economics of Wikipedia and free software, the potential of new communications technologies to undermine dictatorial regimes, the blurring line between broadcasting and conversation, and the growing importance of using cross-disciplinary interactions to spur creativity. Few of the technologies Shirky describes will be new to Ars Technica readers, but Shirky draws attention to their broader social implications.

Here Comes Everybody is written for a general audience. The stories involve technology, but they're not about technology. They're about what happens when ordinary, non-geeky people begin to take "boring" technology for granted and integrate it into their day-to-day lives. That makes it the perfect gift for the non-geeks in your life who wonder what you do on your computer all day and how these newfangled Internet technologies could possibly improve their lives.

If I'm honest, I would have expected an academic to go into things with more depth and rigour, but, as Ars Tech notes, this was not the purpose of the book. It's written for a general audience, and in that respect it makes for accessible reading, and is a good analysis and summary of the space, and has a few insights which are new to me too.

I have some deeper issues with some of the book's synthesis though - ie the capability and power of self organising entities to create and operate themselves, rather than oppose or leverage existing structures, and their long term stability - but that's the subject of a different and far longer post.