Cognitive Surplus

An adjunct professor at New York University who focuses on the interrelationships of social and technological networks, Shirky has significant influence within the media, in social networks and in the digital and mobile business worlds. But who influences Shirky? “In terms of people who write now I follow Ethan Zuckerman, David Weinberger, Yochai Benkler and Danah Boyd.”

TED@Cannes (http://www.ted.com) Clay Shirky looks at "cognitive surplus" -- the shared, online work we do with our spare brain cycles. While we're busy editing Wikipedia, posting to Ushahidi (and yes, making LOLcats), we're building a better, more cooperative world.

In short, cognitive surplus is humanity’s talent and free time, some trillion hours a year according to Shirky, which could be channelled into projects via a medium that enables the collaboration and the aggregation of time and talent. If you want to get your head around how much time a trillion hours is, think of this. Shirky estimates that people in the US watch about 200 billion hours of television a year. If you convert this to productive digital time, Shirky says its equivalent to about 2,000 Wikipedia-type projects a year.

I often find Shirkey to clearly summarize what everyone is thinking of around the evolution of (social) media, but this time he only made half of the book excellent. The book has two parts: 1. Can be summarized well in the quote "the wiring of humanity lets us treat free time as a shared global resource, and lets us design new kinds of participation and sharing that take advantage of that resource". Great points, but in fact pretty much what was between the lines in Here Comes Everybody. 2. a How-to-use-the-cognitive-surplus-of-the-planet-guide - some great points, but this format does not suit the standards Shirkeyisms. It is way too much of a list of ideas.

Arguing that our collective free time is a resource—a "cognitive surplus"—that can be harnessed via the Internet, Shirky paints a positive picture of all the activity happening online. He talks to TIME about websites that are changing the world, the upside of narcissism, and how close he came to shutting down his Facebook account.

Clay Shirky thinks about the Internet. His latest book is: Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age. Join this live webinar/ interview on Communitelligence.com Sept. 9, 2010, ask your question and learn about the near future of the the social Web, communications and collaboration.

The book give us the 50,000 mile high view. It forecasts the changes we will enjoy as social media tools allows people to put their talents and goodwill to use for society. Each chapter is takes us through a look at the future by examining the past. It’s filled with wonderful stories from for-profit, technology sector, and politics. Shirky suggests that the most profound use of social media will come from groups trying new things. He talks about about the importance of experiments and the listen, learn, and adapt skills required.

Clay Shirky spoke at Cannes in June as part of a TED Talk, in which he expanded on the concept of ‘cognitive surplus’. Shirky explained the power of people’s collective intelligence, creativity, and efforts – or cognitive surplus – and its ability to benefit the greater, societal good. There were a few ideas and points that caught our attention from Shirky’s perspective:

Once people do find the time, their self-organisation can be surprisingly useful: there's the social network of fans of the singer Josh Groban, who used their surplus energy to create a charity that gives 100% of its receipts to good causes. A global charity with no overheads? That's a real harnessing of the cognitive surplus.

Clay Shirky talks about his fascinating new book Cognitive Surplus at the Penguin offices.

Clay Shirky talks about his fascinating new book Cognitive Surplus at the Penguin offices.

The book is organized into seven chapters that outline a complete way of thinking about social media.This book gives you a way to thinking about how people contribute their time, attention and knowledge and therefore how you can think about social media. In my opinion, this is THE BOOK to read if you are new to the subject of mass collaboration, social media, Web 2.0 etc.

Disruption happens. A technology breakthrough. A shift in consumer demand. A rise, or fall, in a critical market. Any of these can rewrite the future of a company -- or a whole industry. If you haven't faced this moment, you will soon. It's time to change the way you run your business. Now what? How you decide to respond is what separates the leaders from the left behind. Today's smartest executives know that disruption is constant and inevitable. They've learned to absorb the shockwave that change brings, and can use that energy to transform their companies and their careers.

Complete Premium video at: http://fora.tv/conference/wired_business_conference_2010

We can quarrel about the precise value of our internet communications, we would all have to accept that there is some value to it while there is no social value to the completely atomized tv viewer staring at a screen. Where we were once wasting all that free time we had to think, we are now using it more and more and creating a world in which a social media written by average people directly challenges the sorts of private media that was/is presented to us by distant professionals, garbed in authority.

Clay Shirky and Daniel Pink have led eerily parallel lives. Both grew up in Midwest university towns in the 1970s, where they spent their formative years watching television after school and at night. Wired had the two sit down for a conversation about motivation and media, social networking, sitcoms, and why the hell people spend their free time editing Wikipedia.

Clay Shirky discussing Web 2.0, wikipedia, technology.

Clay Shirky discussing the implications and impact of wikipedia