Author and Professor at New York University, Shirky is one of today’s most influential thinkers on how the internet is impacting the way the world works. He focuses on technology’s impact on human relations and productivity.Shirky is an expert on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies and the author of Cognitive Surplus about the positive effects of the internet and how it's changing the way society functions. An early fan of crowdsourcing, Shirky teaches in the acclaimed graduate New Media Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU.