Web 2.0 Expo 2008: Clay Shirky on continuing collective action through social networking
Uploaded on Apr 24, 2008 / 350 views / 5270 impressions / 1 comment
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Clay Shirky spoke at a round table today about creating long term groups that build something over time that don't involve incorporation.
mbauwens
I'm not sure that there are no sustainability communities that are primarily online, amongst the 1 million estimated by David Korten. See for example the emerging field of open design communities (http://p2pfoundation.net/Category:Design, see in particularly our product hacking page).
What I think is key is the distinguish the sphere of abundance which enables self-aggregation and can be peer governed, and the sphere of the infrastructure of cooperation, which is scarce and costly, and may require a formal organization. But the latter should in no way impinge on the former. Thus, the NGO model is turned around: the community is primary, the ngo just a technical means to enable the community; as long as the first is 'open and free', and the second is 'participatory' and both are united in a web of trust, I think the model can work, and I believe there are indeed thousands of such communities already.
Of course, I may have misunderstood Clay's argument.
Michel