Shirky,Clay | Opening Keynote

CLAY SHIRKY
(@cshirky)
Opening Keynote
Associate Arts Professor
New York University

Clay Shirky is a provocative voice on all things Internet: social networks and media, economics and culture, connected communities and the open source movement. Shirky holds a joint appointment at New York University (NYU) as an associate arts professor at the Interactive Telecommunications Program and as a distinguished writer in residence in the Journalism Department. He is also a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Prior to NYU, Shirky was a partner at The Accelerator Group, an investment firm focused on early-stage companies. His recent book, Cognitive Surplus, explores how social technologies and media are changing us from consumers to collaborators, unleashing a torrent of creative production that will transform our world. Shirky speaks on emerging technologies at a variety of forums and organizations including TED Global, PC Forum, the Internet Society, the Department of Defense, the BBC, the Economist Group and several O’Reilly conferences. He has presented at events at companies including Microsoft, Apple and Deutsche Telecom.

Keynote Title: DIY, for Large Values of I and Y

The landscape of design is being altered by new collaborative possibilities; a medium that allows for continuous communication among large, dispersed groups holds out new possibilities for generating, refining and modifying design ideas, for everything from typefaces to automobiles. This isn't a simple replacement of professional design with the work of amateurs or crowds; it's an invitation to new forms of hybridization, as the old model of “designers propose, consumers accept or reject” gives way to the possibilities of continuous conversation and re-mix. In this presentation we’ll look at the structures and tools that are allowing this dynamic to take form as well as the implication for users and professionals alike.

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