digital sociology: understanding the mechanics of interaction, groups and politics online

ad:tech, London, 12.09.20Simon Lindgren, Umeå University

simon.lindgren@soc.umu.se@simon_lindgren

Digital SociologyUnderstanding the Mechanics of Interaction, Groups and Politics Online

The state of social web research!Naïve optimism vs. Marxist pessimism

Participation vs. exploitation

My researchGetting past the dualism

“What is actually going on?”

Realization of potentials

Harnessing the power of the good examples

A marketing perspectiveWeb 2.0 manifestos

Buzz words: wikinomics, participatory culture, co-creation, user-generated content, democratized innovation

SlogansPeer production models will replace top-down business models

Power will be shared between responsible companies and skilled users

Democratization, collaboration, openness andtransparency

Business gurusA democratized and collectivist digital space will benefit everyone

Hierarchical business models (producer-consumer)are replaced by ‘mass-creativity’ and ‘peer-production’ as crowds define their own needs

Erasing boundariesProducer / consumer

Collective production / commercial production

Users are now content producersCreative masses participate in the digital economy,and businesses must harness this to spur innovationand growth

An army of users work for free developing andsustaining Linux, Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook ...

Companies provide platforms; users create value

Towards digital utopiaJoin the participatory revolution or perish ! / ?

Customers get what they want, while businessesget free R&D ! / ?

Deconstructing the manifestosUnwarranted premises

We can’t assume that all “users” aresimilar in terms of behaviour and motivations

Are all users equally creative?

Does all participation express the same desire?

How representative is “You”?

The 1% rule

How far-reaching is the spirit of collectivism?

Forgetting the difference between commercial and non-profit platforms?

What would Karl say?

Mapping the social reality of networks

Aligning commons and commerce