I mentioned in a previous post I am reading Here Comes Everybody, which has the tag line “the power of organizing without organizations”. I am almost finished reading it, and the revelations just keep coming. As I was at Eller, the business college at U of A, I was frustrated by the knowledge of powerful organizational tools out there, and the lack of adoption by entrenched organizational culture. Of course the tools like social networks and wikis were fairly new, and only cutting edge schools were using those tools, it was still a source of frustration for me.

This book is putting into words the feelings I had about past and future organizations. Groups are easy to form these days. They can also break apart easily, and are not necessarily geographically centred. Clay Shirky explains so many of aspects of group formation, and the dynamics today’s digital tools have changed. I get very excited about what companies and organizations will look like once these digital tools become prolific and part of our cultural framework.

In fact, part of my difficulty in choosing a career, has been my preference and search for early adopters of these digital tools. After reading this book, I realize it will take time for these tools to reach a high level of adoption, and for the technology to dissolve into cultural norm, before they will truly become useful. (if I have lost anyone, it is only when you can say you googled something, and not have to explain what google is, that the conversation can be about your chosen conversational topic, and not about the technology involved.)

Despite my desire to be the digital prophet to large organizations, proclaiming the coming of mass collaboration, preaching the benefits of crowdsourcing and customers as partners, I do not have experience or credentials to consult companies on these topics. My ardent passion is not enough to be an outside influence, but I would love to work within a company and encourage their level of adoption. But which company? Who knows.