The end of Shirky

Throughout chapter ten, Shirky talks a lot about free failure and its advantages. I find there are lots of advantages of being able to fail on the internet. If you set up an online business, for instance, and it doesn’t take off as planned, what are you really losing? The few dollars you spend on your webhosting plan? On the other hand, if you tried it in a physical space, you would go through the process of renting out a space or buying a space where your business will be. You would also have physically go to that space when your business is open. And if you failed, you would have done a bunch of things and spent a lot of money for nothing. Through failing online, you can learn a lot about what to do the next time around without losing as much as you would with physical failure.

In chapter eleven, Shirky discusses the three rules of social networking, these being the promise, the tool, and the bargain. So, let’s look at Twitter. What’s the Promise there? Share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world. This is a promise that catches people’s attention and interests them. Who doesn’t want to know what’s happening all over the world? Next, the Tool. Well, there is not just one. You can use this service on your computer or you can tweet with your cell phone. This allows you to post the latest news as it is happening. Last, the Bargain, what do you expect and what do they expect of you. With Twitter, you are expecting to be able to look at other people’s tweets and follow whoever you want to, while in return, you will get followers of your own. I am not a Twitter user, so I don’t know if you can block people from following you or not, but if not, that’s part of the bargain. You may get followers that you don’t know, but you can also follow people that you don’t know personally. Celebrities for example. When all three of these rules, the promise, the tool, and the bargain, work together that a social networking site succeeds.