I've been reading Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everyone since summer...I know, its ridiculous that I can't finish it, especially since it is so good. But I have kids, and its been a year like no other for many reasons. So, I'm half-way through, but wanted to catalog some of my favorite bits for you. I definitely suggest reading it (and maybe you can tell me how it ends)...

When we change the way we communicate, we change society.

Conversation creates more a sense of community than sharing does.

Information sharing produces shared awareness among participants, and collaborative production relies on shared creation, but collective action creates shared responsibility, by tying the user's identity to the identity of the group.

“The invention of a tool doesn’t create change; it has to be around long enough that most of society is using it. Its when a technology becomes normal, then ubiquitous, and finally so pervasive as to be invisible, that the really profound changes happen, and for young people today, our new social tools have passed normal and are heading to ubiquitous, and invisible is coming.”

Our social tools are not an improvement to modern society; they are a challenge to it. New technology makes nre things possible: out another way, when new technology appears, previously impossible things start occurring. If enough of those impossible things are important and happen in a bundle, quickly, the change becomes a revolution.

We are plainly witnessing a restructuring of the media businesses, but their suffering isn't unique, its prophetic.

...The category of 'consumer' is now a temporary behavior rather than a permanent identity."