If Clay Shirky did not exist it would be necessary to invent him

Clay Shirky spoke at this year's PopTech, and he was amazing. In fact the highlight of my trip to PopTech was when my friend Buzz and I got to have lunch with Clay Shirky, Larry Lessig, and David Weinberger. Obviously, all three of those guys are smart, so I just kept my mouth shut and listened closely.

If you don't know about Clay Shirky (see photo of him and Weinberger), here's the deal. He writes about the Internet and stuff like social software. He is scary bright, and analytically ruthless. Unlike many people who believe that the Internet is a great thing (which he also believes), Clay isn't afraid to debunk some of the wild-eyed notions of how the Internet is going to "revolutionize the world." For example, read his piece on 'the semantic web'.