Clay Shirky's TEDtalk
Clay's talk is all about online work we use as the media online, or what he calls "cognitive surplus." He talks about how the world needs online media sites because it helps us become more cooperative as a whole. What matters to Clay Shirky is the use of shared online works, or "cognitive surplus," in order to create a better world where everyone can voice their thoughts.
Shirky talks about a cite called Ushahidi, which is a Kenya version of Wikipedia. The only way any of these online databases would really work is if the people find it important enough to comment or add their own information to them, creating a bigger web of information and ideas. He was a very good speaker, and he used the projector a lot to show images and proof of his ideas. Shirky also had a very powerful, loud voice, which was his most remarkable quality because it made you want to listen to what he had to say.
I agreed with Shirky's topic, being focused around communicating ideas through technology, because it is so much like the atmosphere we use in our class. During our fishbowls, half of the class relies on the CoverItLive blogging in order to communicate with others, voice their opinions, and ask important questions. We become a more efficient class by using online media to become more cooperative.
I also think that Clay Shirky's idea could relate to Dan Pink's sixth sense, Story. The online works are composed of people's ideas, opinions, and their stories. Cognitive Surplus allows people to share their stories, and when so many people share, one can see many different perspectives of the same story, which allows more understanding between others and, idealistically, cooperation.
Our class consists of about thirty people, who can also talk face-t0-face with each other. What is hard to comprehend about Shirky's talk is the fact that he thinks that the whole world can rely on online works in order to cooperate with each other's thoughts. Isn't is a bit unrealistic to think that all that information would be relayed throughout at least someone in the world? How is every topic supposed to be just stumbled upon on these online works that contain such an abundant amount of information?
No comments:
Post a Comment