VIRTUAL LIVING LIBRARIES
An exploration of Social Media as places of cultural
and knowledge exchange
Alexandra Bal, March 12th, 2009
Presented at Ryerson, FCAD SRC Seminar

SOCIAL MEDIA ARE DIFFERENT FROM VISUAL
MEDIA

PARTICIPATORY CULTURE (JENKINS)
Peer based production and consumption of media

Facilitate users’ participation

new tools and technologies
enable consumers to archive,
annotate, appropriate, and
recirculate media content.
Mediate human relationships

Do It Yourself (DYI) media
allows Individuals and
groups to participate to
conversations
This presentation explores manifestation of this
participatory culture within Youtube and Second Life

THE YOUTUBE PHENOMENON
For Wesch, it celebrates

new forms of
Expression

Empowerment

Identity

Global Community

Which generate new forms of
Culture, learning and Social and economic Life

FANDOM: POP CULTURE JAMMING
Remixing existing media messages
to create new ones
 Stars war kid
Views: 11,904,270
• Star Wars kid Drunken Jedi
Views: 6,294,606
• Star wars kid VS Yoda:
Views: 2,453,195
• South Park

CULTURE JAMMING TO FAMILY FOOTAGE
Charlie bit me: Views: 85,240,780
Charlie remix: Views: 1,439,409
Charlie reenacted: Views: 1,050,415
The public has become a performer

COLLECTIVE PUBLIC PERFORMANCE
This informal participatory culture is influencing other social
spheres.

OBAMA POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS USED CJ
Yes we can song

Views: 16,594,825

MR OBAMA DOES NOT WORK AS WELL
Why?


SOCIAL MEDIA = FOLK CULTURE
Folk Culture respond to the need of people to be active

social participants in the creation of their culture (Bakan
and Nolan, 2009)
To share

To create (Janick, 2009)
 To perform (McLuhan, 1967)
Their own stories, experiences and knowledge
The network is a public sphere

Creation and participation to public discourse and culture


FOLK CULTURE EXISTS IN MULTIPLE FORMS
Cartesian social form: Youtube:

conversation = co-creation of content
Embodied form:

 Real world : Living libraries
 Virtual Worlds:
conversation = co-action + co-creation of content
Social Media gas facilitated the emergence of informal
communities where culture emerges out of informal
conversations

REAL WORLD LIVING LIBRARIES

SECOND LIFE IS NOT A GAME
A sociological space

 Avatars: Embodied peers meet in
space and converse without
geographical constrains.
 Tele-collaboration
 Tele-Performance environment
ladyhawke365's photostream

SOCIAL MEDIA ARE FORMS OF LIVING
LIBRARIES
Informal Learning Environments
Where people are part of
self organizing
informal
communities
and
institutions

INFORMAL COMMUNITIES OF INTERESTS
Peers are learning within informal social networks

based on their interests.
Learning happens by informal sharing of

experiences (Freire, 1978) with members of
communities of interests.
Social Constructivism:

Peers learn from their own
and other's experiences
and social contexts
(Vygotsky, 1978).
Cancerland


LEARNING WITHIN INFORMAL
COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICES
Constructionist learning driven by discovery and
experimentation (Papert, 1992).
Lived
experiences
+
Action
create
learning.

SOME FORMS OF INTELLIGENCE BECOME
COLLECTIVE
Connective Intelligence (de Kerckhove)
Collective Intelligence (Levy)
In both cases:
Culture and knowledge results from
•Conversations between peers
•Activities between peers
Knowledge is the result of
•Lived experience = expertise
•Authentic and personal narratives
•Co-creation by peers
•Peers interests’

SHIFT IN MEDIATED EDUCATION CULTURE
Visual media:
 Information = knowledge

Authored Story Telling Authored knowledge
An author formally tells a
 An expert educates via a

story via a scripted
scripted presentation
experience
Social media:

Social media:
 Knowledge Sharing: Peers
Story Sharing: Peers informally educate each
informally share authentic other
and lived experiences
Experiential Media:

Experiential Media:

knowledge building
Story Living
Peers learn by building

Peers build experiences

experiences together
together

WHAT DOES THIS MEANS TO INSTITUTIONS
Digital natives are growing up in these alternate social

realities.
Since education = social reproduction, which values should it now
promote?

EDUCATIONAL INDUSTRIAL FRAMEWORKS
Different communication models influence different educational models which
in turn are a reflection of current capitalist industrial frameworks
(Boltanski and Chiappello, 2001) .
Behaviorism:
Taylorist Industry
Socialize to
- Institutional hierarchies
- Standard use of time and
space
- Passive behaviours and
routines
- Competition

INNOVATION INDUSTRIES
Cognitivism: Hierarchies lessen.
The individual has value
Innovating workers
share knowledge to advance
progress within the institution.
Professional communities from
multiple discipline within
Institutions.
Socialize to:
- Standard use of time and space
- Active behaviours and routines
- Professional Social Networks
- Collaboration

NETWORK INDUSTRIES
Social Constructivism:
Institutional boundaries soften.
Value is created and shared by
members of a network
instead of by individual
companies (Kelley, 1998).
Creation of professional
communities tied to discipline
instead of organization.
Socialize to
- autonomy,
- Coo-petition (Brandenburger and
Nalebuff, 1997),
- virtual space.

PEER 2 PEER INDUSTRIES
Social constructionism:
Delocalized and self-organizing
collectives are creating their own industrial
frameworks.
- self-directed education, supported by social
relations, in fluid, informal arrangements
(Illich, 1971).
Informal communities of practice are
- rationalizing production processes
Peer socialization:
-work is mobile,
-- Time and relationships are fluid
- public spaces become workspaces,
-- co-creation, co-production,
-- co-working (Forlano, 2008).

INFORMAL ORGANISATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS
- Collectives are formalizing the status of their collectives in order
to gain legal protection of their processes (creative commons) and
organizing
into rights to be non profit oriented.
Others are building
informal institutions

Carleon Open University:
synthetic Art,
Volunteers tenured
•
faculty
Emerging artists
•

HYBRID SOCIO-CONSTRUCTIONIST INSTITUTIONS
Hybrid institutions:
Fragmentation of institutions lead to
acceptance of peer culture within
Institutional boundaries are fluid.
Creation of learning networks tied to
interest and practices outside
profession, discipline and
organizations.
Socialization:
- work that combines
personal-informal-professional
networks of conversations,
- mixed-space,
- co-learning,
- innovation exits outside of institutions.

PROFESSIONAL INFORMAL KNOWLEDGE
DISSEMINATION VIA CULTURE JAMMING
Professionals educators are participating to these

collectives
Michael Wesch
Institutions are starting to use culture jamming to

disseminate their knowledge
Cern Large Hadron Rap

Views: 4,423,967

Social Media: Short-circuit the traditional authorities of diffusion
of culture and change the nature of institutional territories.
Institutions are already moving towards deschooling some parts
of learning. Carleon has succeeded in becoming an informal arm
of universities as envisioned by Illich.
A broader participation will require rethinking of how we support
informal learning.
Will be participate to these emerging living libraries?