Here Comes Every Voice

I kind of feel like I keep repeating myself when I write these posts because they often revolve around the shortsightedness of "the establishment" and the democratizing effects of technology. And chapters 4 through 6 of Here Comes Everybody continues that trend, but in the context of a more unified goal.

These three chapters, specifically four and five, focus on user-generated content and how it is replacing or at the very least supplementing content generated by the traditional producers who typically have power. As that producer/consumer balance shifts, it seems like individuals are gaining more power and ability to influence the world. In chapter four, Shirky largely talks about Myspace, but I feel like that example could be applied to any blog that focuses on community/user generated posts/feedback. He notes larger blogs, but those seem to be less interesting than individual or small community generated content. I feel like those larger blogs are just reinterpretations/remediations of traditional newspapers, magazines, and television. Although these large online media sources are pulling power away from the physical/broadcast sources, they're outnumbered and potentially less effective than these smaller zones. I say this because these larger blogs may be approached with the same skepticism and disdain associated with traditional media. Smaller bloggers seem to have a sense of more intimacy and truthfulness and as a result may be shared and spread amongst friends more readily and undermine broader communication methods.

With these groups and tools in place, we now have the opportunity to actually influence the world around us and force change in other arenas that we would not have with these singular, but loosely organized mini-broadcasters that seem to be cropping up as more and more people explore the less restrictive online space.

Dwindling Expertise?

The first three chapters of Shirky's Here Comes Everybody heavily focus on the idea of do it yourself (DIY) like movements and actions that have been enabled by the web. In chapters one and two, Shirky heavily relies on the example of Ivanna's lost/stolen Sidekick and how the backend technology associated with the phone gave Ivanna the means to become a kind of private investigator or police officer and track down who may have had her phone. Additionally, her friend Evan and his understanding of the web gave the both of them the tools to then pin point who had the phone and determine the best course of action to take.

The story of Evan and Ivanna's search for the phone and some sort of justice outside the realm of the rules and restrictions of the physical world help highlight what chapter three seemed to start covering and that was the diminishing necessity of "experts" and even the potential for amateurs to supplant experts thanks to the distributed resources and inexpensive tools that the web affords. In chapter 3, on page 61 specifically, Shirky uses the example of amateur bloggers to demonstrate how the Net Generation has used these factors of increased access and inexpensive/powerful tools to undermine, yet indirectly support traditional journalist/experts.

The journalists, due to being jaded or part of the "system," missed or ignored comments made by a public official, Trent Lott, at a birthday party for a Strom Thurmond, whose early political career was founded on segregation. Outside the context of Thurmond's past, the comment simply seems to be a kind comment for a friend or revered colleague and the traditional journalists largely seemed to take it as that. However, a network of amateur bloggers noted that the comment seemed to advocate segregation and racism when one considered the context of Thurmond's career. Traditional journalists didn't have the time or "bandwidth" to pore of Lott's comments, but the "amateur" bloggers were able to do this.

As a result of a combination of resources, knowledge, and fervor, the bloggers commented enough on this seemingly innocuous line that it became a worthwhile news item for the traditional media. Blogger interest in this piece not only brought the issue to the attention of the traditional media, but also revealed other distasteful aspect's of Lott's persona/character that had cropped up in the past.