Clay Shirky

The author of Here Comes Everybody explains how new media technologies are prompting a return from consumerism to collaboration, making predictions about imminent wide-scale creative innovations that will positively transform civilization.

Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age

Cognitive Surplus

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. 40,000 first printing.

The Power of Organizing Without Organizations

Here Comes Everybody

Almost unknown to the rest of the globe, Xiaomi has become the world's third-largest mobile phone manufacturer. Its high-end phones are tailored to Chinese and emerging markets, where it outsells even Samsung. Since the 1990s China has been climbing up the ladder of quality, from doing knockoffs to designing its own high-end goods. Xiaomi its name literally means "little rice" is landing squarely in this shift in China's economy. But the remarkable rise of Xiaomi from startup to colossus is more than a business story, because mobile phones are special. The common desiderata of the global population, mobile phones offer the kind of freedom and connectedness that autocratic countries are terrified of. China's fortune and future clearly lie with "opening up" to the global market, requiring it to allow local entrepreneurs to experiment. Clay Shirky, one of the most influential and original thinkers on how technological innovation affects social change around the world, now turns his attention to the most populous country of them all. The case of Xiaomi exemplifies the balancing act that China has to perfect to navigate between cheap copies and innovation, between the demands of local and global markets, and between freedom and control.

Smartphones, Xiaomi, and the Chinese Dream

Little Rice

El impacto potencial del excedente cognitivo, esto es, el superávit de conocimiento de que disfruta nuestra sociedad, es enorme. Según Shirky, nuestra sociedad y nuestras vidas cotidianas mejorarán notablemente cuando aprendamos a aprovechar nuestro potencial altruista y nuestro tiempo libre. De hecho, el cambio ya está aquí: para redactar la Wikipedia se empleó sólo el 1% de las horas que los telespectadores estadounidenses pasan al año viendo televisión. Dicho en otras palabras, durante el tiempo en que los estadounidenses pasan ante el televisor durante un año podrían redactarse miles de wikipedias. Este cambio de paradigma es posible porque nos encanta colaborar, escribir en blogs y compartir en las redes sociales, y con ello sentirnos partícipes de algo grande. Ello permite poner nuestra inteligencia y nuestro tiempo libre a trabajar conjuntamente para crear cosas que de forma individual, o desde una empresa o institución, sería imposible crear.

Clay Shirky

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