Many thanks to our outgoing guestblogger Dale Dougherty, who contributed a number of superb posts here over the past couple of weeks, and appeared in an episode of Boing Boing tv today. Thank you so much, Dale!

We'd now like to give a big welcome today to our next guestblogger, Clay Shirky. I first met Clay, geez, like 10 years ago? When I was working with Jason Calacanis at Silicon Alley Reporter magazine in New York City. Back then, the internet media business was a dazzling, luminous orb we all stood around and gazed upon, all slack-jawed and doe-eyed and hopeful. Clay was one of the most inspiring and insightful personalities I knew during those years, and more pragmatic and BS-resistant than most. That much has not changed.

Clay is the author of the superb new book Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. He teaches at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU, where he works on the overlap of social and technological networks.

We're very excited to have him on board for the next couple of weeks. Welcome, Clay!