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Book Review: Here Comes Everybody
Both the TED talk and the book are a few years old now, but I've found his ideas to be even more true today. The basic gist of Here Comes Everybody is similar to that of the above talk: the internet and social tools have started a revolution in our society that will forever change the way we assemble as groups and get things done. Shirky provides example after example demonstrating — this - with each one seemingly starting out unrelated to the ones before it, but eventually tying in to his common theme. At times, especially near the middle chapters ('Personal Motivation Meets Collaborative Production' and 'Faster and Faster'), I felt these examples became a little redundant, but overall every chapter kept offering something new and insightful.
Takeaways
There are quite a few gems in this book that struck me. Of course, they made me think of the big picture he was talking about, but they also made me think about things from a web developer's perspective. Here a few:
1. Filtering vs browsing
"Comparisons between the neatness of traditional media and the messiness of social media often overlook the fact that the comparison isn't just between systems of productions but between systems of filtering as well. You can see how critical filtering tools are to the traditional landscape if you imagine taking a good-sized bookstore, picking it up, and shaking its contents out onto a football field." (p. 96)
This is probably my favorite metaphor for the web. There is so much information that the traditional tools for sorting we've used for hundreds of years are no longer effective. What's the use of a browse page if there are more than 50 results? What if there are 5,000? I guarantee most users won't bother much past the A's. As web developers, we need to come up with more precise filters, not more creative ways to sort listing pages.
2. Governance is still necessary online
"In the mid-1960s, the Dutch anarchist group Provo launched its White Bicycle program in Amsterdam. ... The program would have been just another footnote in the Age of Aquarius, but for one detail: it was an almost instant failure. ... Despite the Provos' optimism, human nature has turned out to be fairly context sensitive; given the opportunity to misbehave, and little penalty for doing so, enough people's behavior becomes antisocial enough to wreck things for everyone." (p. 256)
Shirkey goes on to relate this to online groups and the necessity of some form of governance for groups to be successful. I have also found this to be true when it comes to opening up websites for user generated content. Even if it is something as simple as tags, and 99% of users are submitting useful entries, there still needs some way for administrators to delete the ones that are inappropriate or incorrect for the sake of the group as a whole. Otherwise, it only takes a handful of people to ruin your beautiful crowd-sourced data.
3. Simple is always better
"In the 1990s [Evan Williams]' company, Pyra, was working on a complex project management tool that they could sell to businesses, but while doing so, they needed a project-management tool for themselves. Instead of simply adopting their own tool, they wrote just about the simplest application one could imagine. ... The tool, simple as it was, turned out to be far more compelling than the software they were supposed to be creating ... They named their product Blogger and launched it to the world." (p. 282)
This is a great origin story and, as you may know, Blogger went on to be bought by Google. Today, it is one of the most popular blogging platforms. The developers at Pyra created a tool they were actually going to use themselves, and thus, in a way, became their own client. This combination allowed them to step beyond 'scope requirements' and institutional barriers and let them just make something that worked. How many websites would be improved if the developers behind them had to use their own creation?
As you can tell, I loved this book and recommend it to anyone who is even slightly interested in the web. Shirky claims he doesn't know what will happen after the dust from the web revolution settles, but he certainly has a better grasp on what's currently happening than most of us.