Here comes Everybody (well a few Good men and women...)

Last night Nico MacDonald led the Innovation Reading Circle discussion on Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody. I read it when it came out (here's my review) and I was curious to see what others' views were.

Well, we had a very robust discussion on the book before delving into all sorts of interesting subjects, my take on the synthesis re the book was :

- It's probably the best summary around in one place of "where we are today" in the overall "New Broadband World"
- Its well written and easy to get into, though the predictable "its page 17, so here's a reference to a Web 2.0 icon story" made it read like a standard production line schlockbuster at times
- It's pitched at a general audience, its probably too lightweight for anyone who has been in the area awhile, but has some great insights and is still a necessary read to cover any gaps in one's knowledge

What I do have to give Clay credit for though, on last night's evidence, is getting the "balance" about right in terms of the way the stuff was covered, in that we were equally divided over issues such as too much economic bias vs not enough, too socially "right on" vs not enough, too reverent of Open Source vs not enough, too dry vs too opinionated etc etc - in other words he had managed to upset everyone equally

So what was missing - the strong themes emerging were:

- Too optimistic - ie Bad Things were touched on, but were pan-glossed over in the general upsell
- There were great insights, but not nearly enough follow up "So What"
- There was a related feeling that he had "kept his powder dry" too much, as people familiar with NYU and elsewhere all know there is a lot of interesting work going on in projecting these trends forwards - the feeling was that this book needs a sequel, discussing what this all implies.
- The basic contention around the power of small groups to get things done - quite a lot of doubt about whether this is true (do they just get subverted by bigger interests) and the ability to build/run things rather than rebel/tear down things.

What it did drive were some great discussions - outsourcing R&D and its risks (see earlier post), how creative destruction works, structural vs charismatic power, what bureaucratic structures were essential in society, risk averse societies grabbing social media, digital natives vs those who held power etc etc.

For me though, the killer thoughts of the evening were two related ones:

- All major comms revolutions drive major socioeconomic changes, not all of these are benign (job losses en masse) or peaceful (wars)
- This technology is appearing at a point in time when people seem to be uniquely unhappy with the current structures by which we are governed and run, and just who are the decisions in favour of (the £50bn bailout of prodigal bankers happening at the time being a case in point)

Fascinating stuff...and I suppose Clay would note that its the changes in technology that he wrote about that allows a small cell like this to form, meet and disband so easily