in convincing me that technology might topple existing power structures, he'd go ask how those freedom-fighters are doing. Shirky's is a valuable point of view, but it's a point of view that I've heard too many times. Nowadays, it's more courageous -- and ultimately, I think, more helpful to the world -- to write a book disagreeing with Shirky ("Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge," say, or "The Cult of the Amateur") than it is to write Here Comes Everybody. I was modestly disappointed to see so few references to pioneers I recognize, including Stewart Brand, Kevin Kelly, Joe Trippi, and so on. Howard Rheingold and Yochai Benkler get single references. Seeing Stewart Brand's recommendation persuaded me I don't know the author well enough, and should err on the side of his being a genuine original. Certainly the book reads well, and for someone like me who reads a great deal, I found myself recognizing thoughts explored by others, but also impressed by the synthesis and the clarity. A few of my fly-leaf notes: + New technologies enable new kinds of groups to form. + "Message" is key, what Eric Raymond calls "plausible promise." + Can now harness "free and ready participation in a large distributed group with a variety of skills." + Cost-benefit of large "unsupervised" endeavors is off the charts. + From sharing to cooperation to collective action + Collective action requires shared vision + Literacy led to mass amatuerism, and I have note to myself, the