Summary of How the Internet Will (One Day) Transform Government

Clay Shirky

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How the Internet Will (One Day) Transform Government summary

Rating

8 Overall

8 Importance

8 Innovation

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Recommendation

The open-source software movement provides a blueprint for organizing large communities, allowing participants to work together on projects without central oversight. This structure potentially could tackle fundamental problems of governance. Inspired by the democratic spirit of the movement, social media expert Clay Shirky illustrates how these collaborative tools, though quite sophisticated, can involve citizens more directly in democracy. getAbstract recommends Shirky’s enlightening presentation to civil rights activists and anyone with the political will to fight for the application of open-source tools to governance systems.

In this summary, you will learn

Why new forms of media never deliver on their promises of world peace and
How new software has the potential to democratize government and society

About the Speaker

Clay Shirky is a professor at New York University, a social media expert and an author.

Summary

Throughout history, each new communications medium – be it the printing press, the telegraph, the television or the Internet – has promised, but as yet failed, to deliver world...