Clay Shirky highlights one of the true conundrums of our digital lives; the realization that internet isn’t as impermanent as we’d like to think, particularly when it comes to our social media profiles. To that end, Shirky’s cursory Google search uncovers numerous users’ last ditch efforts to rid themselves of their pesky LinkedIn accounts, changing their login names to telling pseudonyms like Mr. Delete This Account and  delete delete delete delete delete delete, along with”two users named Delete My Profile, four named Delete This Profile, and no fewer than ten named Unsubscribe Unsubscribe.”
Establishing these online presences can certainly open up new opportunities, but as these [...]

While many entrenched in the media industry are trying to find ways to prop up the traditional model of print – micropayments, subscription models, media cartels – in the face of economic turmoil, some thinkers – Steven Berlin Johnson and Clay Shirky among them – believe that this attempt at life support is only delaying their inevitable demise or perhaps, reorder. Even as the newspapers continue to sound the rallying cry of, “You’ll miss us when we’re gone,” Johnson and Shirky seem to be of the mindset that despite the rocky times we’re sure to face, new models will develop [...]