Imagine what the adoption curve for books would be if the conversation about books dealt with typesetting and font intricacies and the compelling features of a particular kind of binding.

Shirky has a remarkable ability to put a skewer through a million things and get to the essence of the broader question that isn’t even articulated: “social tools aren’t interesting until the technology becomes boring.”

As Clay Shirky recently remarked on the Colbert Report, so it must be true, “social tools aren’t interesting until the technology becomes boring.” And more to the point “the social effects are more important than how the technology works.” This might be disconcerting to people in the technology business an hopefully they come realize they aren’t in the technology business. But we are still in the early stages of social software. Case in point is how we still using the rudimentary language of features. Like “wiki” or “blog” or “social networking.” Techcrunch posts and Facebook apps are a constant stream of feature porn.

[From Plexus Beta: Collective Genius: The Technology Doesn't Matter]