#Clay Shirky

Schirrmacher hat leider Shirky übersehen

von , 8.1.10

Das F.A.Z.-Feuilleton druckt heute bekanntlich Teile der Online-Debatte von Edge.org in deutscher Übersetzung aus. Wir gehen über Frank Schirrmachers Verwechslung von Internet- und Mediendebatte hierzulande mal locker hinweg – mit dem Hinweis, dass in seiner Auswahl leider einer der interessantesten Autoren fehlt – Clay Shirky. Shirky macht furios deutlich, wie das Ende der Knappheit “freaks people out”, weil sie sich an die neuen kollaborativen Methoden des Wissenserzeugung gewöhnen müssen. Shirkys Text liest sich wie einen Appell an den Payback-Autor.

Unfortunately for us, though, the intellectual fate of our historical generation is unlikely to matter much in the long haul. It is our misfortune to live through the largest increase in expressive capability in the history of the human race, a misfortune because surplus always breaks more things than scarcity. Scarcity means valuable things become more valuable, a conceptually easy change to integrate. Surplus, on the other hand, means previously valuable things stop being valuable, which freaks people out.

As we know from arXiv.org, the 20th century model of publishing is inadequate to the kind of sharing possible today. As we know from Wikipedia, post-hoc peer review can support astonishing creations of shared value. As we know from the search for Mersenne Primes, whole branches of mathematical exploration are now best taken on by groups. As we know from Open Source efforts like Linux, collaboration between loosely joined parties can work at scales and over timeframes previously unimagined. As we know from NASA clickworkers, groups of amateurs can sometimes replace single experts. As we know from Patients Like Me, patient involvement accelerates medical research. And so on.

Zustimmung, Kritik oder Anmerkungen? Kommentare und Diskussionen zu den Beiträgen auf CARTA finden sich auf Twitter und auf Facebook.