Spurred on by Clay Shirky’s talk at Web 2.0, I picked up his new book Here Comes Everybody, subtitled The Power of Organizing without Organizations. I’ve just finished it, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

There’s been a slew of books on the social and business implications of the Internet, from Wikinomics to Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide, but for the most part I’ve found them a little dry and not especially thought-provoking. I got a lot more out of Here Comes Everybody, and enjoyed reading it more.

The book paints a compelling picture of how the the Internet has demolished barriers to publishing and forming groups. While this is hardly a new observation, I found the book’s exploration of the implications of these changes to be thought provoking, even though I’ve read an awful lot in this domain.