Mark Pack

Here’s your starter for ten as we experiment with a Saturday slot posing a view for debate:

For the last hundred years the big organizational question has been whether any given task was best taken on by the state, directing the effort in a planned way, or by businesses competing in a market. This debate was based on the universal and unspoken supposition that people couldn’t simply self-assemble; the choice between markets and managed effort assumed there was no third alternative. Now there is. Our electronic networks are enabling novel forms of collective action, enabling the creation of collaborative groups that are larger and more distributed than at any other time in history. (Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody)

Agree? Disagree? What’s the implication for public policy? Comment away…