Here comes everybody (clay shirky) p35
“the basic capabilities of tools like flickr reverse the old order of group activity, transforming ‘gather, then share’ into ‘share, then gather’. People were able to connect after discovering one another through their photos”- networks of self interest are the new breed of expert locators with a sustaining purpose as they are not just a look up tool, but a participation tool
- self purpose gets people to use the system, this is the seed, people discover, connect, converse and everything else follows like, forming groups, collaborating, etc…further to this from these micromotives we get an aggregated macroview
- no one told these communities to form or people to collaborate, they just found themselves as they are visible and participate (further to this the two most knowledgeable people may united for a task, without them or their bosses knowing that they had this talent or that they even existed)
- so we get optimal communities and collaboration from people participating (actually contributing, not just a profile with self claimed expertise) in a social network…and the drive to participate is getting around vertical structures to get things done, fixing a problem (like we do offline)…and of course the confidence to adoption comes from simple design (next to no training), facilitating and showcasing seeds, so you get peers (people you respect and trust) influencing each other
- once you get critical mass (network effects) the system drives itself like a market…management listens into this raw network and via feedback/new regulation, amplifies the cream and dampens the negative
