Clay ShirkyClay is an American writer and teaches about the social and economic effects of internet technologies in society.

"Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the

solution,"

-‘Shirky principle’

Shirkys response to Morozovs view about the Libyan government

"about using social software to improve citizen engagement in coastal towns. The idea was that those cities would be more economically successful if local policies related to the tourist trade were designed by the locals themselves.”

"the best reason to believe that social media can aid citizens in their struggle to make government more responsive is that both citizens and governments believe that."

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Quotes “ If I had to pick the critical technology for the 20th century, the bit of social lubricant without which the wheels would've come off the whole enterprise, I'd say it was the sitcom. [...] For the first time, society forced onto an enormous number of its citizens the requirement to manage something they had never had to manage before--free time.”

“Here's something four-year-olds know: Media that's targeted at you but doesn't include you may not be worth sitting still for. Those are things that make me believe that this is a one-way change. [...”