Clay Shirky Big Idea Social media enhances the emotional dimension of news

I'm a huge fan of Clay Shirky, I read his book Here Comes Everybody on a flight from Toronto to Austin, TX last year. I was on my way to SXSW where Clay was apart of a panel with Penguin- who was not a huge crowd pleaser (Penguin was a touch... out of touch? Out of their element? Having a Twilight Zone experience?). At the time, I was working for a large book retailer in Canada and could not believe the contrast of the Penguin panelists and Clay (who was uncharacteristically quiet).

Clay's involvement in SXSW was much more true to character this year. Check out Teressa Iezzi's post about Monkeys with Internet Access: Sharing, Human Nature, and Digital Data.

Clay has the extraordinary ability to explain the complexity of social media and new web technologies in simple terms. He speaks in realistic terms that rationalize what's happening without making it all seem like you need a manual or adopt new lingo to understand.

For those who aren't familar with SXSW, it is a massive conference in Texas that is broken up into three main categories: film, music and interactive. The panels, discussions, talks and seminars are some of the best around. I highly recommend it to anyone who is passionate about digital media (and the parties and live music is the best you'll find in the world).