Here Comes Everybody

By Clay Shirky

Chapter 1: It Takes A Village To Find A Phone

Summary: A woman named Ivanna left her cell phone, a Sidekick, in a New York City cab like hundreds of people do each year; it was nothing out of the ordinary. To her dismay, the Sidekick contained a great deal of information for her upcoming wedding from “contact information for the catering company to the guest list” (Shirky 1). What was unusual in Ivanna's situation is that her story made national headlines thanks to her good friend, Evan, who used his knowledge of technology and the power of influence to retrieve the phone. Evan, who was a programmer in the financial industry, created a website that chronicled the events of the ongoing search for her phone, additionally offering a reward for the return of it. Here are some of the significant effects of his website:

            *  The MySpace and pictures of the girl who stole the phone were found and posted

·               *  The girl's boyfriend was discovered

·               *  An NYPD officer posted how to file a claim with the police

*                *  At one point, Evan was receiving 10 e-mails a minute from different people offering help and encouragement

                *  Someone found out the girl's full name and address, drove by and posted a video of her house

·               *  Dozens of mainstream news outlets had covered the story

Analysis: Though Ivanna eventually got her phone back and everything returned to normal, this is not a typical story. Blogs and websites don’t always have this effect on such commonplace incidents, but her story shows how potentially powerful the use of the Internet can be. With people using it correctly, situations can turn out in ways never imaginable. "...One of the themes running through the story is the power of group action, given the right tools" (Shirky 7). Evan's website drew so many supporters from all over in such record time and he could not have accomplished what he did without his audience, which was much more conveniently attainable due to the fact that his efforts were online. Had Evan tried to do the same thing in the real world rather than the digital one, he probably would not have been as successful. Strength in numbers was, needless to say, a vital element in this situation; the power to spread the word was that much more significant online because of the convenience of contacting hundreds to thousands of people at the speed of light at any given time of day. This is where the question of physical institutions comes in. Online institutions in many ways are replacing physical ones because of their convenience, flexibility and ability to bring more people together from all over the world than would be possible in a tangible, real-world setting.

“Obviously, much of this story is unrepeatable. It isn’t a worldwide media event every time someone looses a phone. The unusualness of the story, though, throws into high relief the difference between the past and the present.” – Clay Shirky

“These changes will transform the world everywhere groups of people come together to accomplish something, which is to say everywhere.” – Clay Shirky

Here Comes Everybody's Blog:  www.herecomeseverybody.org

See Evan's "Stolen Sidekick" Website: http://www.evanwashere.com/StolenSidekick/Original/