7 propositions for the future of
the sociable web
Trebor
Scholz
Content protected by Creative Commons non-commercial, attribution, share-alike license
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Give networked publics full control over their content.
2
Lower the exit costs. Let networked publics take with them what they put in
when they are leaving. Foster free cooperation.
3
Increase transparency of rules about privacy and ownership.
Be open about the rules of the game!
4
Build a skill set for participatory cultures.
5
Build non-commercial social networking sites.
6
Create ways for networked publics to make money and live of their work.
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Share the created monetary value of invisible labor in a fair way.
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Open + Free = Closed + Expensive
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http://lotusmedia.org/post-protest-processing
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http://lotusmedia.org/post-protest-processing
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http://lotusmedia.org/post-protest-processing
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20 Cyworld
18 Facebook
160 QQ
170 Myspace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myspace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook#Statistics
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11.9%
http://blog.compete.com/2007/01/25/top-20-websites-ranked-by-time-spent/
http://blog.compete.com/2007/02/05/compete-attention-200/
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Chinese Backstreet Boys
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http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/AFVQZQ8PW0L/ref=cm_pdp_about_see_review/
104-3003194-7485555?ie=UTF8&sort%5Fby=MostRecentReview
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comment, tag, rank, forward, read,
subscribe, re-post, link, moderate, remix,
share, collaborate, favorite, write; flirt,
work, play, chat, gossip, discuss, learn
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Labor
no objects
performance
speaker
Paolo Virno
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<http://www.yaadz.com/>
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Amateur - Professional
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Commercialization of
Social Life
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If you’re happy and you’re Rupert Murdoch, clap your hands.
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$15billion
$583m
value/ costs/ profit
http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024667,39162801,00.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4695495.stm
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2006/10/crazy_crazy_crazygoogle_spends.html
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they gain friendships, share their life
experience, archive their memories, they
are getting jobs, find dates, fame, and can
“egocast,” as well as contribute to the
greater good, social enjoyment, pleasure
of creation ...
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Individualistic Collectivism
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10 -- 40%
http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/12/sharecropping_t.php
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/long_tail_shrinking.php
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Internet in China
100 mio net users in China
huge difference between city and rural areas
400 million mobile phone users
emphasis on mobile Internet
4 out of the top ten sites online are Chinese
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very few -- very many
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Core sites of the
sociable web provide
the platform, the
“social operating
system.” They make
big money.
Mom and pop
stores
We create the
content, profiles,
sociality.
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=262600004&size=o
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Consolidation
News Corp Google
Writely
Harper Collins
Dodgeball
The Australian
YouTube
Daily Telegraph
Feedburner (400k)
The Times
Blogger
Daily Telegraph
Picasa
New York Post
Wall Street Journal (?) eBay
Fox News Stumbleupon (2.5 mio)
Fox TV Skype
The Sun
Yahoo
Phoenix
Facebook
Fox Interactive Media Del.icio.us
WebJay
MySpace
Jumpcut
Photobucket
Upcoming.org
Oddpost
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The sociable web echos the capitalist system
that we are living in.
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http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=440693384&size=l
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Walled Gardens
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Facebook & MySpace
Mobile Social Space
Mobile content-contribution will increase centralization of the web:
cold cash of hot communities
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Value: attention, ads, profiles, consumption,
transaction commissions, spam, spam, and spam
(and spam)
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/gimble/429797365/
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Michael Barrett, chief revenue officer for Fox Interactive
Media (FIM) reports that they plan to identify MySpacers
with many friends in order to ask them if they’d willing
to “blather” about products they love. \"They're influencers
and power users,\" and they could make money that way.
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Money in the click economy
is not made of content
but of access to communities!
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http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/013403.html
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Hybridity
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Property and Privacy in Facebook
“You automatically grant ... to the Company an
irrevocable, fully paid, worldwide license to use ...
and distribute User Content “
“Facebook may also collect information about you
from other sources ...”
http://www.facebook.com/terms.php
http://www.facebook.com/policy.php
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Facebook Profiles
Favorite books, movies, pictures, postal address, phone
number, email, clubs, jobs, education, music, birth date,
sexual orientation, interests, daily schedules, friends
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700
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Non-profit alternatives to sociable media giants
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Amazon.com reviews
& the birth of a new genre?
Kevin Killian: 1525 reviews (01/07/06)
He writes autobiographical fiction in the form of reviews that
range from sweet potato baby food to Pasternak's Doctor
Zhivago.
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7 Propositions for the future of the sociable web
Give networked publics
1
full control over their
content.
50

2 Lower the exit costs. Let networked publics take with
them what they put in when they are leaving. Foster
free cooperation.
51

3 Increase transparency of rules about
privacy and ownership.
Be open about the rules of the game!
52

4 Build a skill set for participatory
cultures.
53

5 Build non-commercial social
networking sites.
54

6 Create ways for networked publics to
make money and live of their work.
55

Share the created
7
monetary value of
invisible labor in a fair
way.
56

We are Thanks.
outsourcing our
memory
Kevin Kelly says, \"What will most surprise us is how dependent we will be
trebor@thing.net
on what the Machine knows - about us and about what we want to know.
We already find it easier to Google something a second or third time
rather than remember it ourselves.\"
http://collectivate.net
\"The more we teach this mega computer, the more it will assume
responsibility for our knowing. It will become our memory. Then it will
become our identity. In 2015 many people, when divorced from the
Machine, won't feel like themselves - as if they'd had a lobotomy.\"
<http://wired.com/wired/archive/13.08/tech.html>
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We are outsourcing our
memory
Kevin Kelly says, \"What will most surprise us is how dependent we will be
on what the Machine knows - about us and about what we want to know.
We already find it easier to Google something a second or third time
rather than remember it ourselves.\"
\"The more we teach this mega computer, the more it will assume
responsibility for our knowing. It will become our memory. Then it will
become our identity. In 2015 many people, when divorced from the
Machine, won't feel like themselves - as if they'd had a lobotomy.\"
<http://wired.com/wired/archive/13.08/tech.html>
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