Clay Shirky - People Quotes

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The members of the Invisible College did not live to see the full flowering of the scientific method, and we will not live to see what use humanity makes of a medium for sharing that is cheap, instant, and global (both in the sense of 'comes from everyone' and 'goes everywhere.') We are, however, the people who are setting the earliest patterns for this medium. Our fate won't matter much, but the norms we set will. Given what we have today, the Internet could easily become Invisible High School, with a modicum of educational material in an ocean of narcissism and social obsessions. We could, however, also use it as an Invisible College, the communicative backbone of real intellectual and civic change.

Clay Shirky

The more people are involved in a given task, the more potential agreements need to be negotiated to do anything, and the greater the transaction costs.

Clay Shirky

Civic participants don't aim to make life better merely for members of the group. They want to improve even the lives of people who never participate...

Clay Shirky