Pajama Entrepreneur

In a Salon interview, Clay Shirky says that the ability to create ad hoc social groups on the Internet is changing society in profound ways:

The argument I’m making is that the Internet isn’t a decoration to contemporary society — it’s a challenge to it. It’s not just that there’s a lot of new things happening. It’s that the new things that are happening are breaking parts of society that had actually been incredibly stable over a period of in some cases hundreds of years. And that is really the mark of a revolution. It’s not just that some additional capabilities come into a society. It’s really that the capabilities of the new tool cannot be contained by society’s current institutions.

Shirky has just published a book called Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations.

Indeed, it is precisely these online tools that allow individuals to set up businesses and pursue their own livelihoods outside large organizations such as corporations. Thousands of pajama entrepreneurs around the world are able to trade goods and services, often across borders, at very low cost. What are these tools and which traditional businesses (middlemen) are these tools cutting out?

• Skype (and other VOIP services like Gizmo Project): telecom operators
• Paypal: banks (although unfortunately, Paypal did not create its own virtual currency that people can use to trade with one another, replacing traditional currency. You still need a bank account to use Paypal but that may change if people lose confidence in the major currencies)
• Blogs and wikis: large media and PR firms
• Online data storage services: physical offices

But it’s not just online tools that allow us to set up our own businesses. Inexpensive computer hardware, cheap storage in the form of DVDs and hard drives, mobile phones, broadband and Wi-Fi have all done their part in giving us tools to work independently. No need to rent office space, you can work at home or in a cafe, although in some cases, it’s fun to share an office. But the ability to  share an office (called co-working) exists precisely because there are all of these tools).

I live in Amsterdam, everyone should know that by looking at my Facebook profile. Yet, Facebook has inserted this ad for Blockbuster in my news feed. Totally irrelevant to me. This is nothing more than SPAM. In a few months, my news feed will be clogged with utterly useless ads. How do I opt out of Facebook spam?

Think all those Facebook widgets are so cool? Watch out for this one which installs the Zango adware / spyware, says Fortinet:

Fortinet Global Security Research Team discovered a malicious Facebook Widget (officially, a “Platform Application”) actively spreading on the social networking site which ultimately prompts users to install the infamous “Zango” adware/spyware.

Click here for more information.

[From Niall Kennedy]

UPDATE (10 Jan 2008): Facebook has deleted the widget from the site.