The Power of Organizing Without Organizations

The Internet, social networking and peer-to-peer (p2p) communication have transformed how people connect, as well as the scope, scale and speed of mass collaborations. This transformation has opened the door for self-emerging and increasingly complex virtual forums, allowing individuals to collaborate and organize from worlds apart.

Please join us for a discussion about what happens when people are given the tools to do things together, without needing traditional organizational structures. Shirky will discuss his new book, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, which explains how the Internet, social networking, p2p technologies are just beginning their revolutionary impact on cultural creation, social movements, business, and traditional hierarchical structures and organizations.

Clay Shirky was an expert on the Internet and emerging technology even before there was a World Wide Web. He has written extensively about the Internet since 1996, with regular columns in Business 2.0, FEED, OpenP2P.com and ACM Net Worker, as well as articles that have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, Wired, and other leading outlets.

Participants

• Clay Shirky
  Consultant, Emerging Technologies and Peer-to-Peer Technology
  Adjunct Professor, Interactive Telecommunications Program, NYU
  Author, Here Comes Everybody


• Michael Calabrese
  Director, Wireless Future Program
  New America Foundation


• Sascha Meinrath
  Research Director, Wireless Future Program
  New America Foundation