Here Comes Every Website

The News-Pedia

First of all, I'd like to talk about the famous Drudgreport. I'm not sure if it's an unpaid website or not. No matter what kind of blog it is, it's worth reading. In such an information flooded era, people do need a website to summarize all the breaking news to save time browsing from New York Times to Columbia Journalism Review.

This website is like a news-pedia. All kinds of news are updated by editors of this website and a huge amount of links to a variety of online news websites is also its hallmark.

One person's ability to absorb every piece of daily news is limited, but when we've got a website whose contributors help us find news, provide us links to keep ourselves up-to-date, this vividly explains the magic power of organizing without organization.

Getting husband out of prison

This blog belongs to a wife who is trying to get her husband out of Beijing jail for seeing prostitutes. She claims in the anonymous "ABOUT ME" section that she creates the blog in the hope that by doing so, she could help someone else who encounters similar problems and also helps herself to placate her tense and stress.

People may not be able to help her husband get out of prison sooner, like the cell phone has finally been returned to its owner in Shirky's book. But at least, those who are facing similar problems can definitely draw some lessons from the wife's narration.

A good news is, when I browsed down the blog, a comment popped up saying "PLEASE GET IN TOUCH WITH FRANK CARUSO, an American Lawyer based in Shenzhen in China, he has links with the government and can get anyone out of jail.(even me)...his website is http://chntxlaw.com/staff/".

If it were not for the founding of the website, how could the wife get such precious recourses from some passers-by?

Someone recommended this website on Twitter, where I found the link. Since everyone is a media outlet, the wife's voice will be heard from Beijing to Belfast.

Though the mass media professionals may ignore or miss this news piece, yet the mass amateurs will not.

Where on Earth is Matt

This is an interesting blog my cousin recommended to me. The guy Matt is a world traveler, who loves writing about what he witnesses. By sharing with people on the other side of the Internet, he not only broadens their views of the world, also enriches himself by gaining a sense of making contribution to people around the world who can't get to where he's been to.

Matt is not alone, by posting his footprints on the Internet, he immediately makes every reader a member of his touring group. Just like what Clay Shirky claim in "Here Comes Everybody".

The comments he get can bring him more suggestions on where to visit. Different angles from different readers also may help Matt pay attention to more details during his journey most of which he might ignore before.

By reading Matt's blog, the readers who can't make it to the place they are dreaming to go can satisfy themselves from the site. Matt is their eye.

Isn't it amazing that in today's society, one's pleasure can be shared by millions more. Shared pleasure is double pleasure? No, it's million-times ecstasy.

California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse

This is a group of non-partisan grassroots, who care about citizens and businesses and are dedicated to fighting against lawsuit abuse in California. One of their movements is to create this website.

This is an ideal example to illustrate the idea of "collective action" in Shirky's book. Though a great amount of work still needs to be done, but the motivation will eventually get paid back as long as the unit sticks together and fight on.

The needs of many trump the needs of the few or the one.