Cognitive Surplus – Use Social Connectivity to Change the World
Harnessing the power of the collective crowdsourcing for social change is a thread woven throughout Cognitive Surplus, and its viability requires two of Shirky’s assertions to be accurate.
First, that our default state as a species is to create and share and collaborate, and we are just now moving back toward normalcy, aided by the vast increase in content creation and sharing mechanisms. Second, that making collaboration more convenient will inexorably cause it to become more commonplace.
Shirky makes a great case for it to be so, citing LOLCats as an example of widespread human collaboration and creation – albeit devoid of the type of society-enhancing mission and outcomes he hopes is the eventual result of this movement.
