Comments on: Shirky:Every URL Is a Potential Community http://pjnet.org/post/1683/ Public Journalism Network Sat, 30 Aug 2008 15:39:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Leonard Witt http://pjnet.org/post/1683/#comment-3825 Leonard Witt Fri, 25 Jan 2008 20:50:32 +0000 http://pjnet.org/post/1683/#comment-3825 Hi Will: Shirky's insight really struck me too. I literally woke this morning thinking about it. It is especially helpful for me as I try to figure out what community is for my Representative Journalism idea. Hi Will:

Shirky’s insight really struck me too. I literally woke this morning thinking about it. It is especially helpful for me as I try to figure out what community is for my Representative Journalism idea.

]]> By: Will Riley http://pjnet.org/post/1683/#comment-3824 Will Riley Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:38:45 +0000 http://pjnet.org/post/1683/#comment-3824 In the Penguin Blog, Cla Shirky says, "We have never before had a single platform which could scale from conversation to broadcast and all points between, but social media gives us that -- it's like your telephone could turn into a radio, depending on how you configured it." I think this is the most interesting point he makes - the way in which personal communications are simultaneously published to anonymous groups. A user thinks she is participating in an intimate small-many to small-many conversation, but in fact she is broadcasting this conversation to a much wider group of people, inviting them, at the very least to listen as an audience, and at best, join the conversation. This kind of communication is like a one-way mirror that doubles as a one-way door. The community cannot see the audience, but the audience can see the community, and the audience can open the door to join the conversation, and hence join the community. But once you are part of the community, you cannot return to the audience. In the Penguin Blog, Cla Shirky says, “We have never before had a single platform which could scale from conversation to broadcast and all points between, but social media gives us that — it’s like your telephone could turn into a radio, depending on how you configured it.”

I think this is the most interesting point he makes - the way in which personal communications are simultaneously published to anonymous groups. A user thinks she is participating in an intimate small-many to small-many conversation, but in fact she is broadcasting this conversation to a much wider group of people, inviting them, at the very least to listen as an audience, and at best, join the conversation.

This kind of communication is like a one-way mirror that doubles as a one-way door. The community cannot see the audience, but the audience can see the community, and the audience can open the door to join the conversation, and hence join the community. But once you are part of the community, you cannot return to the audience.

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