Sharing, Human Nature, and Digital Data

It appears I’ve been on a perpetual coffee break for weeks! And yet, it’s not so.

Many of you know I started a full-time job in mid-January — a “real” job some may say. A job teaching and using social media on a daily basis leaves me little time for staying in touch with you.

Anyway… I was fortunate to attend South by SouthWest Interactive (#SXSW) for several days as a benefit of working for Network Communications, Inc.

Nothing prepared me for seeing the internet on feet! The streets of downtown Austin were filled with people immersed in all aspects of the web. The 256-page program guide weighed 8 pounds!

• Design and Development
• Workshops and Panels
• Book Readings and Signings
• Business Applications
• Core Conversations
• Featured Speakers
• Content Strategy
• Web Psychology
• Causes for the Greater Good
• Networking and Funnel Cakes
• Interactive Lounges
• Emerging Technologies

One highlight for me was Clay Shirky’s presentation “Monkeys with Internet Access: Sharing, Human Nature, and Digital Data.”  The blogs excerpted below provide an in-depth review of the informative — and entertaining — talk.

Shirky looked at the organizing power of the internet and its disruptive force. The sudden wealth of organizing and communicating tools, he argued, have upset many comfortably established systems, generally through their ability to provide better service than the status quo.

“Abundance,” he said, “breaks more things than scarcity.” 
~ Mike Miner, The Fifth Column

Shirky argues that, in comparison to the sharing of goods or services, primates — including humans — have evolved to want to share information. “Sharing information is something we’re biased to do and to like doing.”

“Behavior is just motivation filtered through opportunity,” he said. 
~ Dr. John Grohol, The Huffington Post

Media companies are freaking out about this change, but rather than realigning to a new reality they are trying to protect the old one. He noted that businesses create workarounds to problems, but part in parcel with that is that this builds in a desire to not solve the original problem lest the solution make itself obsolete. There is no profit motive in fixing something once and for all.  ~@ Jeremy Littau

We have a word for not sharing if there’s no cost to you: That word is ‘spiteful.’  ~ Liz Gannes, gigaom

Be sure to check back for an update on “How To Not Be a Douchebag” as presented by Ed Hunsinger, Violet Blue and John Adams.