Information User

Reading Clay Shirky’s book, Cognitive Surplus. It’s an insightful read discussing some of the fundamental societal waves swelling now. As an exercise, I wanted to pull out some excerpts I enjoyed. It’s a quick combination of quotes and rephrasing.  

• Media production has had 15th century Gutenberg economics applied for the 500 years. That is to say “it’s expensive to own and manage the means of production or if it requires a staff you’re in the world of Gutenberg economics. And where ever you have Gutenberg economics, you’re going to have the producers deciding what’s good before showing it to the audience. In this world almost all media was produced by “the media”. Page 45.
• In the old world of Gutenberg economics there was no automatic “publish” button. Today there is. 
• Publish means to make something public. “Consider the cluster of ideas contained in this list: publicity, publicize, publish, publication, publicist, publisher.”
• In rethinking the concept media today, it’s evolved from something we consume to something we use. The connotation of media that it’s “something produced by professionals for consumption by amateurs” is antiquated and Mr. Shirky’s new conception of the word is: “Media is the connective tissue of society.” Page 54.
• In 1999 two lead AOL community moderators sued AOL on behalf of tens of thousands of volunteers saying they should have been paid minimum wage. The reason why after years and hours of participating willingly lies in what changed. Page 59.
• “Extrinsic motivation like being paid can crowd out an intrinsic one like enjoying something for its own sake.” Page 72.
• “The feeling of confidence is often best engaged at the edge of one’s abilities.” Page 77.
• The explosion of production in amateur/social media would be curtailing if it only was satisfying a release of pent-up desires. The flow continues to increase though because social media rewards our intrinsic desires for membership and sharing. Page 88.
• The social media world connects people with niche interests at very low “discovery costs.”
• A surprise is the feeling of an old belief breaking. A surprise is not just new information as we integrate new information regularly.
•  Many new behaviors like memorizing phone numbers are put there because of inconvenience. Page 101.
• “Users can press a tool into service in ways that the designers never imagined, and those new functions are often discovered and perfected not by a burst of solo inspiration but by exploration and improvement among a collaborative group.” See: Dogtown Z-Boys skateboarding in pools. Nice phrase from this? Collaborative competition. Page 103.
• “Under the right circumstances, we are good at coordinating our actions with regard for other people, even those not present. The skill isn’t universal, however; it requires figuring out how to encourage mutual regard for one another and balance selfish motivation against it. That challenge of any group dynamic- the Z-Boys and the Impressionist had both competitive and collaborative aspects. What’s new is the prospect of creating that mutual regard across much larger and more widely dispersed groups, groups who pool their efforts without sharing a physical location, and whose creations can be valuable not just for the participants but for the rest of the world as well.” Page 115.
• Young people respond to experimentation because they have much to gain and little to lose. The pooh-pooh’ing that happens when people share too much is a derivative on this. If these pooh-pooh’ers, were in the “young person’s” position, they’d exercise the opportunity to experiment as well. Page 123.
• A Thomas Jefferson quote: “He who receives ideas from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine, as he who lights his taper at mine receives light without darkening me.” Digital data sharing has similar qualities. Think Napster.
• In 1973 Mark Granovetter showed in a seminal paper, “The Strength of Weak Ties,” that people tend to find jobs through casual acquaintances rather than through close friends or family.” Page 128.