Book Review: 'Here Comes Everybody!'

Book Review: 'Here Comes Everybody; How things Change when Everybody Comes Together'by Clay Shirky: Penguin Books [London] 2009 344 pp including acknowledgments, bibliography/notes and index. £9.99.

This book is essential reading for those involved in politics, pressure or special interest groups. The internet means that small and large groups alike can come together and pursue their collective aims. The bloggers, FaceBookers and MySpacers escape the cell. (See earlier posting).

From business theory the author leads us through to the dynamics of networks, communications between groups and web communities, and the sociology of the web. The developments which have made sites like Wikipedea, My Space and Face Book possible are chronicled. Perhaps the most significant development for the individual computer literate is the new ease of publication which makes this posting possible. Without the net it would have to be placed with a journal willing to take it. The reviewer would not be taken on trust so a good contact, track record or luck would be needed to get it into print. Without factors such as these it would not be read by anyone other than the reviewer. Now, as explained by Shirky, we are all our own publishers at no great expense and no risk of wasting time or the costs of failure. All the conventional routes are avoided. With the aid of one or two connections it might be seen by many. Examples of such escapes into a wider context are given as examples of how things have changed. The earthquake in China, the Tsunami and the London bombings are some of the examples of how the new technology breaks the news so quickly and often gets things done.

The strength this book is found in the way the author manages to bring many different topics together to show how a new way of doing things has emerged. For the outsider the description of how Wikipedea was developed shows the potential of collaborative work taking place well away from the conventional routines of publishing. If you ever wondered why the age of the ‘amateur’ writer is so looked down on by conventional journalists, then you need not wonder long. According to Shirky they are waiting in line for their turn to disappear like the scribes before them.

Examples of the ease of organising to express grievances are also given. To take on a government or a company as an individual will be no more than a stand on principle, which brings no results, unless others take up the cause. But with the ease of joining together the game has changed. The students who had taken out accounts with HSBC were not pleased to hear, at short notice, that their interest free overdraft facility was to be withdrawn. Dispersed customers were found through Facebook and HSBC suddenly found there was a co-ordinated force planning to demonstrate at their HQ. The plan was scrapped. Only this week M&S conceded on the big bra premium they were charging.

Those parts of the book which go into computer programme development and the theoretical material could be hard going for some. but these glimpses into different worlds are worth it. You are reading about a major convergence of factors which cannot be reversed, or stopped. With an internet connection we can all be in the crowd and hear the cry, ‘look out, here comes everybody!’. Will it be a really ‘Open Society’?. ( See Karl Poppers book) Is this a new mob rule or a correction of an imbalance of power? Is this a new democracy? One thing seems certain, the new tools of liberty are out of the box and they can never be put back. However, they might be difficult to find should the lights go out.
Dacier