Clay Shirky, noted for his writings about Internet technologies, was the keynote speaker at the Online Conference in London in 2008. Adrian Dale, conference chairman, spoke with Shirky in these two videos of roughly 10 minutes each.
Online Information Conference 2008
- Part 1 - the change to many-to-many exchange and the growth in group work; mass amateurism where there is a spectrum from the professional to the amateur (rather than sharp differences); departure from the quality filters provided by publishers to today's situation where all the filters are done after the fact. These will affect the library information world. Shirky sees a shift for library science from organizing information to discovery.
- Part 2 - considers changes to information companies, such as those happening to Encyclopedia Britannica - a hybridization - away from top-down directed toward more community - staff and customers. He sees a fusing of broadcasting with community - and cites the power of the Facebook as a "site of collective action". For the information professional, there comes a change from having the power to inform to one of being able to "convene" - take action.
More about Clay Shirky at http://www.shirky.com/
Posted by Gwen at January 16, 2009 03:21 AM