Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 Clay is as good and author as a speaker December 1, 2008
Thomas Buttonfield (Boston, USA)
I had the opportunity to hear Clay speak at a recent event in Boston. I immediately knew that I wanted to read more about his point of view on technology trends after he was five minutes into his speech on technology and social tools. He uses real-life analogies to explain why some technolgy ventures fail, or succeed. However, sometimes they fail or succeed for very different reasons than their creators imagined they would. This book is about the power of social tools and the groups that form because of them. It changed my outlook forever on the power of social tools and which groups might form when new technologies are adopted at a massive scale. His take on the Power Law Distribution also changed my point of view on how I thought these tools scaled.
This is an easy, and fun read that is packed with terrific insight about what is possible when you least expect it. I highly recommend buying this book.
 expansion of concepts October 16, 2008
Ken Lizotte (www.thoughtleading.com)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Every entrepreneur and would-be "thought leader" should know and implement the leadership strategies and concepts found in this book. Technology keeps coming our way, too fast to realize, with implications that are hard to recognize at first. Thus books such as this one help us bear our bearings.
And what are the next trends, the next wants and desires in the marketplace... and how can we know about them, beforehand? For an all-out briefing that allows you to fully implement strategies contained in my own book, "The Expert's Edge"... get this book and read it carefully all the way through!
New challenges October 16, 2008
Ian M. Buchanan (Cardiff, Wales)
i found this book absolutely fascinating - it poses for me a very interesting question: we know that the internet as caused big changes in society, but i wonder too if it hasn't also exposed some false assumptions about society. This is what Shirky seems to be saying: people have always wanted to act collectively but until now it has been very difficult to do so. I wonder too if it doesn't demand a rethink of cultural studies, which is premised on a notion of the average person and their response to mass communication. With the internet one could say neither of these things exists anymore. This is Shirky's thesis: there is no average internet user, nor is there mass communication.
Great Quality Political Analysis October 2, 2008
R. Kelley
Clay Shirky provides insightful and well-developed analysis of today's new technology and its possible impact on politics and other areas of society, such as journalism. This is interspersed with stories to keep the reader interested. All in all, I am very glad I purchased this book.
 An Excellent school book September 28, 2008
Bryan Whisman (Cortland, NY USA)
I had to purchase this book for an online college-credit class and I really enjoyed the book! The class was Writing for the Digital Age and Shirky's book talked a lot about present and future times of texting and new media! It is an easy read and very informational. I actually looked forward to reading it!
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