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The open-source world has learned to deal with a flood of new, oftentimes divergent, ideas using hosting services like GitHub -- so why can't governments? In this rousing talk Clay Shirky shows how democracies can take a lesson from the Internet, to be not just transparent but also to draw on the knowledge of all their citizens.

"In the 1930s most of the nations in the capitalist world experienced widespread severe unemployment, and it appeared resistant to elimination by traditional policies. A new scourge emerged and proved victorious in several nations: fascism. This was the result of an unprecedented development: a mass movement against democracy."

"My single strongest recommendation to you: if you want the best and latest evidence-based, authoritative, nuanced, critical knowledge about how digital media and networks are transforming not just learning but commercial media, citizen participation in democracy, and the everyday practices of young people, my advice is to obtain a copy of the new book, "Participatory Culture in A Networked Era," by Henry Jenkins, Mizuko Ito, and danah boyd."

"The internet should be either a post-capitalist good, or a public good. A public utility. Like a town square. Things like Facebook and YouTube and Twitter never should have been capitalist at all. Like all town squares, the rules of civilized speech should apply. I can't call someone a nasty name, harass them, intimidate them, bully them there - nor should I be able to here. The capitalist internet is one of history's great failures, my friends. Whether we know it now or not, our grandkids will certainly regard it that way. They'll be incredulous that we were seduced and then addicted by its garbage culture, its trash spectacles, its junk food for the human mind and spirit, all so we could get a desperate hit of feeling power and control…while our planet, democracies, future, and lives were all melting down. It's up to us to build a better internet, and do it now. And whether we do that through post-capitalism, or through public goods - or both - that challenge is very real, very urgent, and very noble."

"we cannot be dependent on Facebook's benevolence for protection in a world where so much of our daily activities are codified into data and collected by third parties. Indeed, we should be skeptical of Facebook's own efforts to use artificial intelligence to monitor user data for what it deems dangerous content. To continue down this path is to passively accept a surveillance society and sacrifice the liberty that enables a democracy to flourish."