Clay Shirky: Here Comes Everybody

Ross Reynolds
03/14/2008 at 12:00 p.m.

With the internet more people are more connected than ever before. With this connection comes sharing – of stories, photos and video cooperation – creating things like Wikipedia, the on–line encyclopedia and collective action – such as MoveOn.org's ability to instantly mobilize on political issues. New York University professor Clay Shirky explores the ability of groups to act without leaders or profit in his new book Here Comes Everybody. But what will these groups do? Shirky is our guest today on The Conversation.

Also, journalist and filmmaker Molly Bingham tells us about being locked up at Abu Ghraib prison and the ten months she spent interviewing people in a North Baghdad neighborhood to learn how they organized themselves to resist U.S. troops. She challenges the conventional wisdom on the nature of the Iraq insurgency.

Guests:
Clay Shirky is a writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. He also teaches New Media at New York University. His new book is Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations.
Molly Bingham is a photojournalist and the co–director of the film Meeting Resistance. While covering the Iraq war, she was held by Iraqi government security services and held in Abu Ghraib prison with four other westerners.
Steve Connors mwas born in Sheffield, England; and he's worked for Time, Newsweek, The New York Times and other newspapers and he's co–director of the film Meeting Resistance.