Comments on: Erm, excuse me, but I think Everybody was here all along

By: The pace of change « matt.me63.com – Matt Edgar

The pace of change « matt.me63.com – Matt Edgar — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 23:01:15 +0000

[...] also: Erm, excuse me, but I think Everybody was here all along Eco World Content From Across The Internet. Featured on EcoPressed Government Report Blames [...]

By: On the way to dConstruct: a social constructionist thought for the day « matt.me63.com – Matt Edgar

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:52:23 +0000

[...] desire to put some theoretical acro props under my vague unease with the determinist narrative of so much of our technology discourse has led me to the writing of [...]

By: When too much perspective can be a bad thing « matt.me63.com – Matt Edgar

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:06:18 +0000

[...] Throughout the so-called “mass media” era, managers were encouraged to delude themselves that they had the attention of their employees and customers, who were in reality talking amongst themselves all along. [...]

By: Fact-checking the information exa-ggeration « matt.me63.com – Matt Edgar

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:04:22 +0000

[...] I suggested in a previous post, if we want to profit from the massive potential of new media, we’d do well to start with a [...]

By: Gin, Jetplanes and Transitive Surplus « matt.me63.com – Matt Edgar

Gin, Jetplanes and Transitive Surplus « matt.me63.com – Matt Edgar — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 00:06:08 +0000

[...] not a member of Nick Carr’s band of New Luddites I could never completely buy Clay’s assertions about the unprecedented good of the internet, that it somehow unleashed [...]

By: One song to the tune of another: the 18th Century prophet of social media revealed « matt.me63.com - Matt Edgar

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:14:28 +0000

[...] there was a “Twitter Makes Us Better People” meme doing the rounds. It reminded me why I’m suspicious of claims about technology changing [...]

By: Simon Collister

Simon Collister — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:30:19 +0000

Hi Matt. Nice to see I’m not alone and thanks for the link. I do get where Shirky is coming from to some extent. But I totally agree his argument does no justice to the idea. People like Yochai Benkler have cleary demonstrated how economic and cultural production is being changed by technology. But benkler devotes significant time to examining the complex relationship between technology and society. This, at the very least, positions his argument within a framework. Shirky is way too giddy (which I suspect his publishers loved) and uses example after example to justiofy his agument withoutany critica; or real investigation of the phenomena he’s examing. must try harder :)

By: Here Comes Everybody bigger (and smaller) than ever before « matt.me63.com - Matt Edgar

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:57:42 +0000

[...] “Erm, excuse me, but I think Everybody was here all along” I challenged the title of Clay’s book: surely it was the media that was late to [...]

By: Second verse, same as the first, a little bit louder and a little bit worse « matt.me63.com - Matt Edgar

Thu, 29 May 2008 23:02:48 +0000

[...] a little bit louder and a little bit worse Two recent news stories continue my theme that social media doesn’t so much change people’s behaviour, as expose pre-existing behaviour…, often with unexpected [...]

By: mattedgar

mattedgar — Sun, 25 May 2008 21:04:34 +0000

Hi Arek,
Thanks for commenting. I guess most of my post is western-centric, with the exception of the Berlin Wall example which comes from Clay Shirky’s book, so I’m sorry if I’ve misunderstood what happened across Eastern Europe in 1989.
My point is that the technology is neutral: what matters is what people do with it. For example while it’s possible for people to coordinate their activities using social networks, governments could also monitor the very same to identify potential opponents more quickly. It’s surely easier to automatically scan the contents of emails than to open letters or tap phone lines?
Best wishes, Matt