It takes a Village to find a Phone

     This reading tells the story of a woman (Ivanna) who lost her phone, with lots of vital information on it, in a cab.  After a little while she finds out who has found her phone(Sasha), and tries to convince her to give it back.  Ivanna gets help from her friend Evan in trying to get the phone back.  After some heated conversations between Evan and Sasha, and her friends and family, he decides to take a different approach.  He makes a website dedicated to the lost phone, and the thief Sasha.  After this happens, networking takes over, and the story goes from person to person, and soon reaches over a million people, most of who can relate to the story, and feel for Ivanna and her lost phone.  After getting help from strangers, Evan is finally able to get the police involved and they end up arresting Sasha, and returning the stolen phone.  

1.      Some parts that really stick out, and I believe are important in this story are the fact that once Sasha found out the real owner of the phone knew she had it, and wanted it back, she still refused to give it back, because, like most people who talk on the web, they feel invincible.

2.     Another thing i found interesting in this story was that Evan was able to make a website and share the story to tons of people in the matter of a day.  Evan wasn't a journalist, or anybody of note for that matter, but he was still able to send his message across the web, and reach thousands of people.

3.     Another point, is that with the simple act of networking, he was able to get an army of sorts behind him, and his fight for the phone.  Which is obviously something that couldn't have been accomplished ten years ago.

4.     The fourth that stuck out in this story was that Sasha thought she was safe from somebody she couldn't see, and only interacted with by text messaging , and e/mail.  But as she found out,  your not as anonymous as you think.  Which is a common misconception a lot of people have while surfing the web,  or joining in discussions.

5.     Finally the fifth thing in this story that stuck out was that with this networking, and gaining support, Evan was able to persuade the NYPD to change their mind, and help out in the case

     In the reading the author talks about how humans are social creatures, and always have been.  I agree with him on this aspect, because he makes very good points explaining how before agriculture, humans would hunt together, how in prison solitary confinement is one of the worst things somebody can go through.  He also talks about how society has changed, and how easy it is to be a part of a group now.  Just ten years ago, if somebody wanted to be in a group, they would have to actually go out, and join a group, and meet with that group, now people can do it while sitting at their desk, at any time in the day.  This is a very interesting point he brings up, because it is very true, almost everybody i know uses facebook, but i don't know too many who are in a book club.

Shirky Summary

In this video Shirky talks about how the media landscape has changed over the years from the printing press to the internet.  He explains how through this people have become more connected, and how people are becoming producers, as well as the consumers of media and information.  He also talks about the earthquake in China, and how the citizens of China were broadcasting it through social media as it was happening.  This shows how connected people have become, because he also talks about how a few years earlier when China had a bad earthquake, it took them 3 months to admit it happened.  So this shows how people have become more connected, and how technology and advancements in communication have given the ordinary people of the world a voice, and an outlet to speak.  He goes on to talk about how the Obama campaign used social media, and how imaginative they were in doing so.  He talked about how Obama used his website to inform his followers that he was voting a different way on a bill, which upset them, but he let them know that he understands where his followers were coming from, and he was going to take his lumps on this one.  But in the end his followers were happy with him for not shutting them down for voicing their opinion.

Clay Shirky: How cellphones, Twitter, Facebook can make history

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