Clay Shirky on Gin, Television and the Social Cognitive Surplus

This is a fairly short, extremely relevant speech given by Clay Shirky at the Web 2.0 conference on April 23, 2008. It’s an absolute must view if you want to understand the ongoing shift from passive to active, participatory media. I also highly recommend Shirky’s latest book Here Comes Everybody for the same reason. The more I see, hear, and read from Clay the more I am convinced that he is without a doubt one of the most important and inspiring social media and technology thinkers in the world.

If you want like reading instead (or if you just want to thumb your nose at Steve Jobs) here is the text on Clay’s blog.