GroshLink

I confess Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organization (Clay Shirky. NY, NY: Penguin Press, 2008) was hard to put down.  But was there anything of value in Chapter 2:  Sharing Anchors Community?  Glad you asked ;-)  The chapter begins with the assertion:

Groups of people are complex, in ways that make those groups hard to form and hard to sustain; much of the shape of traditional institutions is a response to those difficulties.  New social tools relieve some of those burdens, allowing for new kinds of group-forming, like using simple sharing to anchor the creation of new groups. -- p.25, original in italics.

1.  The Birthday Paradox.  Chemistry is not just applied physics.  Sociology is not just applied psychology.  The danger of adding employees to a late project (Fred Brooks, The Mythical Man-Month).  The Nature of the Firm (Ronald Coase, 1937).

2.  On-line photo (Flickr) and info (blogging) sharing in unique situations ('95 Underground bombings, '04 tsunami, '06 Thai Military Coup). [Comment:  The lack of illustrations using Facebook stems from the book's release in 2008, before the widespread use of Facebook.  Waiting to see if Facebook will receive some mention later in the book.]

3.  Smaller organizations can run in a more ad hoc fashion.  But larger organizations demand the flow chart, developed by railroads in mid-19th century, which layers information and decision making. As a matter of fact, "not only does managing resources take resources, but management challenges grow faster than organizational size" (p.41). [Comment: I enjoy pioneering and seeing a small community/organization birthed.  The management of a larger community/organization can be difficult and demands checks to be sure it aligns with its purpose/vision which come more easily/naturally in a small, 'home grown' community/organization where everyone knows what everyone else is doing.]

4.  "An organization will tend to grow only when the advantages that can be gotten from directing the work of additional employees are less than the transaction costs of managing them" (p.43).

5  "Social tools [e.g., Flickr] provide a third alternative:  action by loosely structured groups, operating without managerial direction and outside the profit margin" (p.47). .... the ease of assembling, experimentation, and sharing with collaborative groups (p.48-49).  Hierarchy of information sharing, cooperating in collaborative production, collective action (p.49-54). [Question: How about parachurch ministries in which staff members raise their own support?]

Onto Chapter 3:  Everyone is a Media Outlet. 

Here Comes Everybody: Chapter 1