Response to TED conference, and Shirky

Shirky, besides being a great public speaker, has the ability to resonate and impress numerous followers and Media Experts.  The most impressive part of his presentation was its simplicity.  The simplicity to understand, follow and acknowledge the wave of the social media technology without even knowing the extent of what social media can become.

Censorship.  It is an important word and one that is discussed in most of our classes at MCDM.  There is a need to regulate, manage, and monitor the use of the internet, or at least the ability to sift through the excess.  In China, the censorship of the Internet has always been astounding to me.  I guess because I always wonder what standards the Chinese government are using since social media is a new form of communication. Who can really be the judge of this?  How can a government really censor people's opinions when there is such a broad range that falls under the rules of censoring the internet?  We as humans adapt, and develop new ways to get around restrictions.  For example, if we can't express opinions of one's government then we can express it in code that is un-traceable.  We have been trained to use abbreviations, and other vernacular to express our opinions.  So, my question is... Don't you think that there will always be a way to get around this kind of censorship?

Besides the obvious freedom of speech that censorship clearly takes away from every person using the internet.  I also have to imagine that the next step would be the censorship of 2 way communication as well. Supposedly the government is already spying on our texts and phone calls... which would be a huge waste of time if they were ever spying on myself.  So, what if censorship of the internet led to censorship of our texts, and what we say over the phone?  My god!  What would then happen to one of my favorite websites http://www.textsfromlastnight.com?  I am being extreme of course but it is my train of thought when we talk about censorship on the internet.  It trickles down to all forms of communication and it has already affected numerous newspapers where journalist are not allowed to express opinions or views in articles.

The most important part of Shirky's presentation was the fact that the people, not the government, gave the news and information first.  I just heard a segment on NPR about the same content basically stating that the government needs to get on board with social media if they want to be able to give the news before the amateurs do.  Social media should be embraced further by governments but that won't rule out the role of amateurs.  It can't. The people will always get to the news before the government does because it is us that are living through these occurrences.  Not them.  We should embrace amateurism.  As Shirky once said, "Amateurs are motivated by something other than money", which makes them more real than most professionals in my opinion.