Posted by Here are 17 minutes that just might help you understand the true power of everything we’re experimenting with online, and give you a small glimpse into how technology is connecting us all.
Clay Shirky (author of the book, Here Comes Everybody) is one of the brightest thinkers (and speakers) on the topic of new media. Here, in this recently posted TED Talk, Shirky looks at "how Facebook, Twitter and TXTs help citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news, bypassing censors (however briefly). The end of top-down control of news is changing the nature of politics."
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Our CEO, Jay Berkowitz, recently did a presentation which included this topic – refering to it as the opportunity to”disintermediate” – or cut out the middle man. Some interesting business applications abound, including companies using Twitter for customer service, and websites like HARO (Help A Reporter Out) which connects reporters with sources.
The process to disintermediate was a keystone of the overall design of the internet when the “www” was first formed. And the ability to do it via social media has been around since the beginning, too (consider forums, chat rooms, etc).
Today’s social media interfaces provide a rich/multi-media approach to the same opportunity. It has taken the kind of widespread adoption of these tools that is happening today for this to become noticed by the world.
Thanks for sharing the video, Mitch. I’m interested in hearing comments on this growing trend and found Clay’s presentation really jelled it all.