Clay Shirky: The Uses of Design

("Clay")

               

                   Clay Skirky, a well known writer, specifically in the field of technology, gave a TED Talk about cognitive surplus.  According to Clay Shirky, cognitive surplus means that, “…the ability of the world's population to volunteer and to contribute and collaborate on large, sometimes global, projects” ("Clay").  An example of cognitive surplus at work is the website called Wikipedia.  It is a non-profit domain where people type in articles about anything or anyone.  As information becomes outdated, Wikipedia articles can be easily altered.  Cognitive surplus can also be used towards entertainment such as the LOLcats posted all over the internet.  These LOLcats, although ridiculously time wasting, show that at least someone’s mind is being put towards creative ideas.  LOLcats also apply to Dan Pink’s idea of designing and how it will bring in the conceptional era because the captions that are attached with the pictures of cats must somehow make sense, thus possessing design.  Nearly every kid creates a LOLcat or something similar because in kindergarten, pictures are drawn or macaroni sculptures created.  I for one have created copious sculptures or drawn pictures that required the minimal amount of design.  Clay Shirky uses a presentation that focuses on the facts and not the emotions associated with the points of his original thesis.  An example of this is when Clay discusses the website known as Ushahidi.  Ushahidi is a website created by a few computer programmers that wanted to assist a woman in Kenya who was trying to show where the violence of Kenya during 2007 was taking place.  However, this task required more man power than Ory Okolloh could possibly provide in her lifetime.  So the computer programmers created the Ushahidi website to automatically compile the data of where the violence was taking place and place it all onto a map for everyone on the internet to view.  The designing of this website provided valuable information to the people of Kenya and an application for many other uses such as traffic, weather, natural disasters, or political campaigns.  Clay Shirky provides clever insight to the uses of design in the world through his clever TED Talk.

Works Cited

"Clay Shirky: How Cognitive Surplus Will Change the World | Video on TED.com." TED: Ideas worth Spreading. June 2010. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. <http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/clay_shirky_how_cognitive_surplus_will_change_the_world.html>.