Clay Shirky will be the March 17 speaker for City Share, a lunch-time conversation series focused on finding creative solutions to community issues.
Mr. Shirky will be speaking to Chattanooga via video chat next Wednesday about the concept of “The Contribution Revolution.”
In addition to teaching New Media at NYU’s graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program, Mr. Shirky’s consulting practice focuses on the utilization of decentralized technologies such as peer-to-peer, wireless networks, social software and open-source development. His columns and writings have appeared in Business 2.0, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review and Wired.
He explains his book Here Comes Everybody as being about "what happens when people are given the tools to do things together, without needing traditional organizational structures."
In an interview Mr. Shirky spoke to the importance of including people at all levels of engagement: “Very often really large-scale collaboration, whether it's a Wikipedia or Linux or what have you, involves a small number of people who care an enormous amount, and then a large number of people who only care a little bit, but who are participating, who are adding their value to the overall work product.”
Stand campaign coordinator Katherine Nielsen said, “Stand believes that participation is paramount to community change, which can’t begin without people speaking up, standing up, and standing together. Clay Shirky’s thoughts on online group formation can help guide the ways we connect around Stand results—in real time, online and in the spaces in between.”
The event will be held Wednesday, March 17, from 12-1 p.m. at CreateHere and will include Lupi's pizza and discussion with the internationally renowned social theorist. City Share is free and open to the public.
To find out more about City Share, visit either www.chattanoogastand.com or www.createhere.org.