This is truly an amazing talk. It explains logically why we see so much crap and why Sturgeon’s Law seems to be the only one we experience day to day. Shirky’s always good for one of those “Duh” forehead slaps. This is another case in point. In terms of spam, and I believe this for all of computing, we need to move the costs closer to the creator. Thus, if you create an email message you should pay to email it. If you produce anything on the internet you should pay to publish it. If sites, like YouTube, wish to subsidize publishing, great, but if not, bear the brunt of the cost if you so believe in your message.Of course, this requires a massive change in mindset which I don’t see happening anytime soon.
