Here Comes Everybody

After the bombing of the Boston Marathon a lot of people were ticked. They wanted answers, they wanted to know who caused the attack and why they did it. On Reddit users began working together to answer those questions. They shared pictures and crafted theories, even going as far as to determine who the bombers were. Except they were wrong. Their witch hunt lead to false accusations and their actions eventually elicited an apology from the site's general manager.

Vigilante investigation is only one consequence of the level of information sharing we've achieved. Also on Reddit people were able to stay in touch and informed as the aftermath of the bombings unfolded. It was a platform to discuss and cope with the tragedy. I learned about the bombing on Reddit before I heard about it anywhere else. It's not an uncommon occurrence, news often breaks first through social media. People affected by the recent hurricane disaster quickly tweeted and shared images of the devastation. Normal people are filling the roles once held by huge industries, people united only through the internet and their ability to share.

We have the power to accomplish much that once required extreme structure and painful layers of management. Great works from news aggregation to operating system construction are done by communities with little or no outside guidance. As our world grows more connected, as we share more and more of our lives with each other, we will continue to see individuals and communities search for answers to general questions, to general problems. The barriers to communication have fallen, and with their fall a new social information age will come.