3 books for £15.00.....now time to read them

I just got a load of books at a pretty cheap price. First up, John Palfrey's Born Digital for £6.00, which looks at Digital natives. Then I got Constant Touch by John Agar F2.50, looking at history of mobile phones (bit short on history so far though). Then, the real bargain, Clay Shirky's Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age for less than £6.00. I the joy of reading.

Clay Shirky talk to be streamed live from RSA tonight

Clay Shirky whose new book Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age will be talking on the book in London, at the RSA. For those unable to attend (like me) a live stream can be found here , starting ten minutes before the 6pm start.

Web 3.0......the video

There's an interesting video here called Web 3.0 by Kate Ray A story about the Semantic Web interviews with:-
Tim Berners-Lee
Clay Shirky
Chris Dixon
David Weinberger
Nova Spivack
Jason Shellen
Lee Feigenbaum
John Hebeler
Alon Halevy
David Karger
Abraham Bernstein .

Catch it now.

US NOW film review

I recently wrote a film I was going to see called US NOW. I went to see this last week. The film dealt with the web 2.0 economy. They interviewed people like Clay Shirky and Don Tapscott and other organisations that are part of the web 2.0 economy. The film was ok, nicely shot and everything, but yup the wisdom of crowds being the saviour of the world is slightly irksome and cliqued. Obviously other writers have criticised this view. I really despise this idea that the web is making people able to join groups and create new communities. The mumsnet look liked a middle class mothers union
. Only people with internet access can join and this is what this documentary skirted over.
There have been other review of the film. There is also a video report including an introduction to the film. I am found on the video report 97 seconds in.

Online information starts tomorrow

Due to a busy work schedule (and not having £600), Online information starts tomorrow. Clay Shirky is talking and there seem many interesting events that are occuring.

Clay Shirky interview

Clay Shirky of famous Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality and the book Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, is interviewed by Richard Wallis over on Panlibus site. Worth a listen (if only I had internet at home......just 16 days to go).

Nesta, Andrew Keen and Charles Leadbetter

Its been a few weeks since I wrote, so I thought I would briefly talk about the conference I was going to. This was held at the very nice Nesta building in London. Andrew Keen and Charles Leadbetter discussed there very different approaches to the web 2.0 world. Having been to a few of these before I thought Keen may face a rather pro web 2.0 audience. Wow, was I surprised. Leadbetter's view of we think (almost reminiscent of Star Trek's Borg 'we will be assimilated'). Most people felt his idea's were to vague, served little political purpose and was just not a well though out argument. Keen, on the otherhand seemed to have an easier ride (and argue his point better). Keen has the idea we need a hierarchy and used Steve Jobs as a place in point, of an individual and not the group. Well, I like Keen's argument and book, but Jobs created LISA, the impact of Steve Wozniak. I think Keen has been caught in the reality distortion field
.
It was a good conference and Keen offered me the opportunity to interview him for my blog which was nice of him.
BTW, I unfortunately missed Clay Shirky's talk at the RSA called Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations, which is the name of his new book. Anyhow, couldn't go I had work.

Clay Shirky at Supernova video

Clay Shirky has a great video presentation from his speech at Supernova. He discusses the impact of 'love' when we share our resources on perl problems, linux and the London 7/7. It is so worth a look, as librarians (or whatever) satisfaction is increased when we work as a team and to help others.(This article is linked via Peter Morville's blog).