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It’s Clay Shirky’s Internet, We Just Live in It

May 28, 2008
by Jeff Atwood
Editor, Coding Horror

Jeff Atwood

I can’t remember when, exactly, I discovered Clay Shirky, but I suspect it was around 2003 or so. I sent him an email about micropayments, he actually answered it, and we had a rather nice discussion on the topic. I’ve been a fan of Clay’s writing ever since. (In case you’re curious, Clay was right–micropayments are dead–and I was dead wrong. All the more reason to be a fan.)

I don’t think you’ll find a smarter, more articulate writer on the topic of Internet community than Shirky. His “A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy,” for example, is the seminal article on the folly of addressing social software problems purely through technology. I’ve referenced Clay a number of times on this blog, and his writing seems more and more prescient with each passing year. It’s Clay Shirky’s Internet; we just live in it.

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