I had watched that Jennifer 8 talk a couple times before this semester started. I found it fascinating how ideas can grow and spread so rapidly and evolve over such a large area (earth) and over longer durations of time. What’s especially amazing, as she points out, is that it was completely organic and unplanned. This talk also points out how ideas and traditions are non-permanent and evolve and adapt to different times, cultures and atmospheres.

The Clay Shirkey reading shows this similar concept of organically expanding information. However, the modern sense of this is so rapid and fast paced it can happen within minutes! This phenomenon definitely has advantages and clearly has its place since stories like the one about the cell phone happen all the time now. Also the fact that technology exists for this and is used in such ways speaks to humans as a species. Or, at the very least, humans in a very modern society.

I think the rapid pace and opportunity to exchange informations and organizing can have disadvantages too. For one, it creates over-saturation. This often gives information less value and a shorter lifespan for which it remains important. General Tso’s Chicken being on the menu in nearly every Chinese restaurant is a foundation that took decades to build which gives it strength. I wonder if all those restaurants went online and emailed each other a new recipe that they should all include on their menu if it would work at all? My guess would be no since base for that is very shallow. On the flip side though, there may be small groups that would adopt such a practice. That’s another amazing thing about the web and mass communication- although it is nearly infinitely large, it has allowed for more grassroots and small scale groups to happen.

This whole idea of blogging is all new to me. Never would I have thought to do something like Evan did for Ivanna. Just by posting the scenario on his blog and asking people for feedback and information, he was able to attract millions of people that wanted to get to the bottom of this. I thought it was amazing how he was able to get the information he did. He was able to get advice from police officers, lawyers, and just people that supported what he was trying to do. Who would have thought a little networking between people could lead to the finding of Ivanna’s phone and to the arrest of the girl who would not give it back.

I enjoyed the video of Jennifer Lee’s discussion of Self Organization and about the history of Americanized Chinese Food. I have known for a while that our take on chinese food it very different from actual food made in China. It was also very interesting to find out that people in China did not even know what a FORTUNE COOKIE was. The one item that you can find at any chinese restaurant wherever you are was completely foreign to them. ( I also thought it was funny how everyone was shocked by the little piece of paper inside.)

It was cool how there was a different take on the same meals in different regions of the World and how a family living in one place can move and bring their own style of chinese food with them, where ever they end up.

In regards to the reading, I very much enjoyed the story about the lost cell phone. I think its incredible that just by making this story known to people through internet sources, Ivanna was able to get a host of people to help her get phone back.