Cognitive surplus

is an excellent book edited by Clay Shirky (isbn 978-1-846-14217-8). As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:

The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something.

The easier it is for the average person to publish; the more average what gets published becomes.

Language lets us work at the right level of ambiguity.

When opportunity changes a lot, behaviour will as well.

A surprise is the feeling of an old belief breaking.

Many of our behaviours are held in place by inconvenience, and they're quick to disappear when the inconvenience does.

Knowledge is the most combinable thing we humans have.

Behaviour is motivation filtered through opportunity.

The behaviour you're seeing is the behaviour you've designed for.

In participatory systems, "average" is an almost useless concept.

The task isn't just to get something done; it's to create an environment in which people want to do it.