Clay Shirky and Stephen Fry on the digital revolution
Clay Shirky interview – USA (rushes)
Clay Shirky teaches, consults and writes on the social and economic effects of the internet. The Digital Revolution Programme One team met and interviewed Clay to discuss the phenomenal changes that have occurred to the world since the advent of the web. He discusses the difficulties of attaching terms such as ‘democratisation’ to the web, and the reduction of ‘strong tie’ relationships, as ‘weak ties’ increase.
Stephen Fry interview – London (rushes)
Stephen Fry is a writer, comedian, actor and technology enthusiast – and a man very much online. Aleks Krotoski and the Digital Revolution team met and interviewed Stephen to discuss the web, the changes it has brought to the world, its benefits and its possible dangers.
With the Digital Revolution, the BBC intends to tell the story of the web in four one-hour programmes. Programme one — Power on the web — will illustrate the explosion of user-generated content on the web of the early to mid 2000s. Programme two — The fate of nations — looks at the relation between the web and the nation state. The cost of free is the title of programme three which asks if we are trading our privacy for a ‘free’ web. Finally programme four — The web and us — explores what impact the web is having on who we are.