The Amateur Revolution: My Take On Clay Shirky's "Here Comes Everybody"

In Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky presents the notion that the advent of social tools have presented a landscape of new ideas and innovations. Shirky claims that the cost of failure is minimized in tools such as Sourceforge. He talks about how collectives are formed from social media groups such as Digg.

Ideas and innovation are disrupting our traditional corporate structure. We consume this in the technology we use. Our smartphones today contain a great bulk of open source software. Microsoft fails to deliver anything that is as popular and ubiquitous as Android or Linux. Hence, our corporate management structure is giving way to the sea of collective contributions.

Computer Science: Stereotypically Male

Let's face it: women aren't majoring in Computer Science. Of all my three sisters, none of them have any interest in Computer Science. Instead, they are more interested in nursing and medicine, both of which favor women. Yes, we can all talk about Grace Hopper. However, female icons such as Florence Nightingale and Ellen Keller eclipse her contributions. When I talk about compilers with my younger sister, it annoys her. Compilers, one of Grace Hopper's greatest contributions, are reduced to an annoyance. I don't think that my conversation with my sister is an isolated circumstance. Both men and women want acceptance in their related career field. Computer science carries such a heavy stereotypical favor toward men that women feel alienated even by contributions from their gender. It is no wonder why less than twenty percent of computer science majors are women.

Heaven and Hellfire: The LDS Church and Technology

Technology and it's culture both supports and opposes the LDS Church and it's culture. Much of internet entertainment directly opposes the church and it's teachings. However, the church uses the same tool to protect it's members by publishing gospel-oriented media, such as articles and videos. The church encourages members to distribute this media via social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter. The church also increases its distribution channel further by paying for prominent advertising space on popular websites such as Google and YouTube. Despite these efforts, immoral media still spreads rampant on the internet at a faster rate than gospel-related media on the web. However, the message of the Gospel spreads further than ever before through the internet. While destructive media decays society, the greater availability of wholesome media blesses and strengthens members and those around them.