Cognitive Surplus

April 15, 2010
Digital-age guru Shirky (Interactive Telecommunications/New York Univ.; Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, 2008, etc.) argues that new technology is making it possible for people to collaborate in ways that have the potential to change society.

By"cognitive surplus," the author refers to the free time of the world's educated citizenry, which amounts to more than one trillion hours per year. In recent decades, the author writes, most people have devoted much of that time-20 hours per week-to watching television. But that is changing. Young people are now spending less time as passive TV viewers, or consumers, and more time using fast, interactive media as producers and sharers in pursuit of their favorite activities. Their behavior demonstrates that in a wired society it is possible to turn free time into a shared global resource that can be harnessed to connect individuals to achieve beneficial outcomes. Examples include such innovations as Wikipedia, the online free-content encyclopedia; PickupPal.com, a global rideshare community; and Ushahidi.com, which was created to gather citizen-generated reports on acts of violence in Kenya. In this well-written and highly speculative book, Shirky suggests that in these ways new media has enormous potential to transform our lives. No longer an abstraction called"cyberspace," social-media tools are now part of daily life, he writes. As society's connective tissue, they are flexible, cheap and inclusive, and allow people to behave in increasingly generous and social ways. The author discusses the many factors that have given rise to social media and suggests the conditions that will best allow voluntary groups to take advantage of the world's aggregate free time to benefit society."If we want to create new forms of civic value," he writes,"we need to improve the ability of small groups to try radical things." Shirky may be overly optimistic about the possible benefits of social media, but he makes clear their growing global importance.

An informed look at the social impact of the Internet.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

June 15, 2010

Shirky (interactive telecommunications, NYU; Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations) answers the question: Is society going to hell in a handbasket or entering a period of higher consciousness? Many technology pundits are weighing in on the meaning of the changes in society brought about by social networking. Some--Jared Lanier in You Are Not a Gadget and Andrew Keen in Cult of the Amateur--are concerned, while Shirky and others see the dawn of a better era. Shirky argues that since the postwar boom we've had a "cognitive surplus" of free time, intellect, talent, and goodwill but few opportunities and means to exploit it. Today's social and technological environment is enabling us to extend existing civic behaviors beyond anything we could have imagined and enables us to behave in new, positive ways. But the results have been disorienting to many leaders and elders, and Shirky never delves into the dark side in which the cognitive surplus would be used to undermine civil society. VERDICT This thought-provoking, sunny, optimistic read will appeal to those interested in technology's social impact.--James A. Buczynski, Seneca Coll. of Applied Arts & Tech, Toronto

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.