The Fall of Modern Institutions?

I have a flair for the dramatic, or had you noticed?

Clay Shirky, in his book, makes some very bold statements, which I have recorded below.  This might be it for our modern institutions and businesses...well, maybe.
"the last hundred years the big organizational question has been whether any given task was best taken on by the state, directing the effort in a planned way, or by businesses competing in a market. This debate was based on the universal and unspoken supposition that people couldn’t simply self-assemble; the choice between markets and managed effort assumed that there was no third alternative. Now there is. Our electronic networks are enabling novel forms of collective action, enabling the creation of collaborative groups that are larger and more distributed than at any other time in history. The scope of work that can be done by noninstitutional groups is a profound challenge to the status quo."

"The cost of all kinds of group activity—sharing, cooperation, and collective action—have fallen so far so fast that activities previously hidden beneath that floor are now coming to light. We didn’t notice how many things were under that floor because, prior to the current era, the alternative to institutional action was usually no action. Social tools provide a third alternative: action by loosely structured groups, operating without managerial direction and outside the profit motive."

"Most common organizational structures we have today are simply the least bad fit for group action in an environment of high transaction costs. Our new tools offer us ways of organizing group effort... Flickr stands in a different kind of relationship to its photographers than a newspaper does. Where a newspaper is in the business of directing the work of photographers, Flickr is simply a platform; whatever coordination happens comes from the users and is projected onto the site. This is odd. We generally regard institutions as being capable of more things than uncoordinated groups are, precisely because they are able to direct their employees."

Shirky, Clay (2009-02-24). Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations (p. 46). Penguin Group. Kindle Edition. 

So, is this the end of modern institutions?  Probably not.  Some of them are being displaced, and more will likely be as well, but there are two reasons why we aren't likely to see them disappear overnight...or indeed, any time in the near or distant future.  First, there are things that cannot be done any other way.  Can you imagine a crowdsourced grocery store?  Or a restaurant?  The words don't even mean anything, because it's something that doesn't exist.  Most businesses will probably continue more or less as they are now, because they need managers and employees and strictly defined tasks.

Secondly, traditional businesses are very deeply set in, and they provide a large portion of the money that makes our worldwide economies work and exist.  While some, like newspaper journalism, simply cannot compete with free internet sources, others only see this as a new way to contact potential consumers.

In summary:  Changing?  Of course!  Ending? Probably not now, and maybe not ever.