A Mouse in Z-Time: Update

Clay Shirky's talk at last week's Web 2.0 Conference is up, here.

Wow.

We have come to accept the assumption that time is a  finite resource. Which, of course, it is, if you take status quo as baseline. So, if you continue to work X number of hours and sleep Y what's left is Z. And Z, of course, is already spoken for, or else you'd be sitting around doing nothing, which you're not.

Ah, but Z is the big opportunity. Why? Well, right now, you're reading the paper in Z-time. You're going to the movies in Z-time. Or, you're watching Lost.  Shirky calls Z-time our "cognitive surplus."

What we know, however, is that much of what used to happen in Z-time ain't happening anymore. Newspaper readership; down. Movie-going; down. TV viewership; down.

Well, what are we doing with our Z-time then?

Blogging. Making videos. Recording podcasts. Uploading photos to Flickr. Commenting. Twittering.

In short, we're creating stuff. Some of us more than others, for now, but all of us getting used to the idea that we, all of us, are creators and not simply "consumers" of material. All of us care enough about something to say something about it, write about it, take a picture of it or comment on somebody else's take on it.

And, to do that, we need, metaphorically, a mouse. So, Shirky says:

I was having dinner with a group of friends about a month ago, and one of them was talking about sitting with his four-year-old daughter watching a DVD.  And in the middle of the movie, apropos nothing, she jumps up off the couch and runs around behind the screen.  That seems like a cute moment.  Maybe she's going back there to see if Dora is really back there or whatever.  But that wasn't what she was doing. She started rooting around in the cables.  And her dad said, "What you doing?"  And she stuck her head out from behind the screen and said, "Looking for the mouse."

Here's something four-year-olds know:  A screen that ships without a mouse ships broken.  Here's something four-year-olds know: Media that's targeted at you but doesn't include you may not be worth sitting still for.

Read the piece. Hey, it's your Z-time, use it wisely.

UPDATE: Here's video of Shirky's talk.