Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Clay Shirky to Deliver Closing Plenary

We are pleased to announce that Clay Shirky will deliver the closing plenary keynote at CFP Technology Policy '08.

Since the 1990s, Shirky has written, taught, and consulted on the social, cultural, and economic effects of Internet technologies and social media. His most recent book, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, evaluates the significant role being played by technological advances on the formation and experience of modern group dynamics, citing such examples as Wikipedia and MySpace to demonstrate the Internet's power in bridging geographical and cultural gaps.

Shirky is an adjunct professor in NYU's graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), where he teaches courses on the interrelated effects of social and technological network topology -- how our networks shape culture and vice-versa.

See more about Shirky at Wikipedia, BoingBoing, and on the Colbert Report.

4 comments:

Seth Finkelstein said...

Tom Slee had a great review:

http://whimsley.typepad.com/whimsley/2008/04/here-comes-ever.html

"The questions then become ones of what kind of structures will form and persist in the online world, and if you are going to talk about these questions then you have to address the economics of the problem."

Seth Finkelstein said...

Let's see if this link works:

http://whimsley.typepad.com/whimsley/2008/04/here-comes-ever.html

Anonymous said...

Thanks Seth. That link worked for me -- and it is a good review.

Shirky's recent Gin, Television, and Social Surplus talk at O’Reilly’s Web 2.0 conference is good reading too.

Tim Bauer said...

I have been tracking Clay Shirky myself and recently did a cliff notes writeup of his presentation @ TechExpo 2.0 around the topic here:

http://timbauer.bauerfive.com/2008/05/07/clay-shirky-author-the-world-is-drunk-on-tv/

So if you want one man's opinion on what he emphasized (like how Gin drove the Industrial revolution and how TV is our Gin today) might be worth a gander. Either way ... good stuff.

Would be curious on your thoughts on his specific points @ the Expo and my take.