327 pages : 22 cm

An examination of how the rapid spread of new forms of social interaction enabled by technology is changing the way humans form groups and exist within them, with profound long-term economic and social effects--for good and for ill. Our age's new technologies of social networking are evolving, and evolving us, into new groups doing new things in new ways, and old and new groups alike doing the old things better and more easily. Hierarchical structures that exist to manage the work of groups are seeing their raisons d'e^tre swiftly eroded by the rising tide. Business models are being destroyed, transformed, born at dizzying speeds, and the larger social impact is profound. Clay Shirky is one of our wisest observers of the transformational power of the new forms of tech-enabled social interaction, and this is his reckoning with the ramifications of all this on what we do and who we are.--From publisher description

Discusses and uses examples of how digital networks transform the ability of humans to gather and cooperate with one another

Includes bibliographical references (pages 308-319) and index

It takes a village to find a phone -- Sharing anchors community -- Everyone is a media outlet -- Publish, then filter -- Personal motivation meets collaborative production -- Collective action and institutional challenges -- Faster and faster -- Solving social dilemmas -- Fitting our tools to a small world -- Failure for free -- Promise, tool, bargain -- Epilogue