Good grief. Give me the church any day! Which day? The days they burned folk for upsetting their status quo? The day they burned folk who posed problems for their "system" of beliefs? I have a simple question for Prokofy Neva, if, following a tenet of the belief system aka church, that JC did eventually get back to planet earth, do you seriously think he would even countenance signing up with the organisations that purportedly operate in his name? Give me strength! All this social web stuff is way too early to read. Moore's law keeps on a truckin'. We ain't seen nuthin yet. Fasten your seat belt. I presume you have them fitted in your pew. The argument you make is found in a bunch of old, way past their use by date social organisations: schools, churches, industrial age bureacracies... etc. The current analogy for your thinking is Detroit.... the big three... and their wriggling to avoid the inevitable. It's movin' and all that matters to me is that we are very clear about what matters to be human. All the flotsam of the industrial revolution aint it. Happy if you fiddle while Rome burns. But to suggest that Shirky's contributions don't contribute to helping folk think about what matters is just offensive! There are actually serious human problems to be addressed that the myopia you offer in your reply will do nothing to help. Bon chance!