One comment Shirky made really resonated: “Abundance breaks more things than scarcity does.” And then he went on to underscore the power of content sharing—the kind, says Shirky, “where people are trying to create civic value to change the culture the participants are embedded in.” His message was no less than the fact that the free and frequent exchange of information has the ability to catalyze revolution.
Shirky notes several examples of groups trying to come up with a public solution to a societal problem by freely distributing content, only to draw the ire of established institutions. One was the case of PickupPal, a ride-sharing service in Ottawa that was providing information for commuters to more easily use the service. It became so easy to use that the City of Ottawa, whose public transportation system was at risk of loosing market share, passed a law making carpooling and ridesharing unreasonably difficult to do. PickupPal was deemed “too efficient.” A local movement to save the rideshare company began and the uproar in the community caused the city to rewrite the law.
Shirky called this type of distribution “jackhammer sharing,” which he called powerful enough to destroy the existing environment or even promote human rights.
This sometimes feels far fetched, but I think the promise is there. Let's think about how to persuade not only people to participate, but also get the current institutions to go along with it...
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