Clay Shirky (Blog 4)

The idea that Shirky discusses is something that he calls "cognitive surplus". Cognitive surplus refers to the free time that humanity has and how they use it to create things together and separately. He also talks about doing things simply because we like to or want to do something, and also how many things are created through human generosity. Another very interesting point that he makes is that many things we create technologically  that have either communal value -- things created by users for users -- and civil value -- things created by users for society. One of his effective techniques is that he uses specific examples (Ushahidi and "LOLCats") to describe the much broader topic of the use of cognitive surplus. He does talk somewhat quickly and skip from idea to idea a bit too fast to for anyone to fully process and grasp what he's saying. At one point, he pulls in a topic that seems to have absolutely nothing to do with the rest of his talk. However, he does make a very good point, at both the beginning and the end of his talk. If more people use their cognitive surplus to create things with civic value, without expecting pay or being told to but simply out of human generosity and interest in spreading information, this can change the way the world receives knowledge. As Shirky says, "no one person knows what everyone knows". However, if we all share what we know, anyone can access information and enlighten themselves on the world around them. To me, the prospect of being able to learn more things from people all over the world is a very exciting concept, and while funny, communal things can be fun to see, I do hope that more people use the technology available to use to create things of civic value.