Clay Shirky, author of “Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations” recently shared a video clip in a post entitled “Supernova Talk: The Internet Runs on Love.” The video clip is of a speech he presented at the Supernova 2007 conference. In the speech, Shirky described his belief that the future of computer software and human services lies in global collaboration on the internet.
Shirky discussed how the “love of the community” is reflected in weblogs, wikis, and list-servs that turn “love” into “renewable building material.” Shirky argues that the group “love” that has caused people in Japan to build and re-build a 300-year-old wooden shrine is the same type of love that drives the collaborative efforts of the communities that constantly refine Linux and Wikipedia. In such an environment, he argues that people should not ask “What is the business model?” for a particular software or service to determine its worth, but rather, they should ask, “Do people who like it take care of each other?”
One of Shirky’s most notable quotes from the presentation is the following: "We have always loved one another. We're human. It's something we're good at. But up until recently, the radius and half-life of that affection has been quite limited. With love alone, you can get a birthday party together. Add coordinating tools, and you can write an operating system. . . . In the past, we could do little things for love, but big things, big things required money. Now, we can do big things for love."
Shirky’s views are reminiscent of Weinberger’s discussions about “social knowing” in “Everything is Miscellaneous.” Like Weinberger, Shirky correctly observes that many aspects of the internet are challenging conventional perceptions. Indeed, who would have imagined that list-servs, wikis and blogs would so quickly begin to challenge the popularity and authority of journals and other well-established periodicals? Shirky also correctly points out the important role that passion and “love” play in the success of an endeavor. The impact of passion is evident not only in the realm of software, but in sports, politics, and almost any other area one can imagine. The Internet’s ability to bring people of similar interests together on a global scale cannot help but amplify the potential impact of passionate people.
However, Shirky’s grand vision for the transformative power of the Internet appears to overlook fundamental aspects of human nature that are important to consider in this new era, as well. One does not have to look very far to find myriad examples that contradict Shirky’s claim that loving one another is “something we’re good at.” From internet spam to computer viruses to the latest financial scandal to a disagreement among close friends, it is not difficult to see that humans struggle with loving each other. Furthermore, the software “love” that Shirky extols is often fleeting, as well. If the community’s love for a social software application like MySpace is supposed to transform it into “something stable and long-lasting,” then why are so many people switching to Facebook?
Keeping in mind the flaws, as well as the great potential, of both human nature and the Internet is important in organizing libraries and personal information. One can hope that a particular software program or organizing scheme will be respected by its users and last as long as a Japanese shrine, but one must also provide appropriate safeguards, checks and balances, and backup plans if the utopian community does not behave as it should.
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