Open data structure to outline the metrics of user participation in social web services. http://www.userlabor.org

1. USER LABOR
BURAK ARIKAN & ENGIN ERDOGAN
www.userlabor.org

2. NEW LIVING
always online
laptops, smart phones, wifi, gsm, gps
information heavy
generated elsewhere by institutions, people, sensors, machines
non-linear
hyperlinked
non-private
status updates, micro-blogs, photo tagging
machine readable
micro formats, activity streams, RSS feeds
hyper-public
over-participating, like, comment, share, vote
...

3. MEDIATED BY
PRIVATE SOCIAL SERVICES
* Logo cloud by Ludwig Gatzke. flickr.com/photos/stabilo-boss

4. MEDIATED BY
PRIVATE SOCIAL SERVICES
* Logo cloud by Ludwig Gatzke. flickr.com/photos/stabilo-boss

5. FREE TO USE, BUT PAID WITH DATA
“The people who are using it
are paying us with
information.”
– Joshua Schachter
Del.icio.us, 2005

6. FREE TO USE, BUT PAID WITH DATA
“It is an ad-supported
service. It is a free service.”
– Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook, 2007

7. SECURED BY ONE-CLICK CONTRACTS

8. engagement/use FOR A LONG TAIL OF USERS
users

9. engagement/use FOR A LONG TAIL OF USERS
power users
users

10. engagement/use FOR A LONG TAIL OF USERS
power users
casual users
users

11. engagement/use FOR A LONG TAIL OF USERS
power users
casual users
lurkers
users

12. engagement/use FOR A LONG TAIL OF USERS
publishing, remixing, marketing...
power users
casual users
lurkers
users

13. engagement/use FOR A LONG TAIL OF USERS
publishing, remixing, marketing...
power users
liking, sharing, commenting...
casual users
lurkers
users

14. engagement/use FOR A LONG TAIL OF USERS
publishing, remixing, marketing...
power users
liking, sharing, commenting...
casual users
reading, clicking...
lurkers
users

15. SUSTAINABLE?
service provider user
tools content
protocols opinions
interfaces tastes
storage effects
hardware relationships

16. USER LABOR MARKUP LANGUAGE (ULML)
<actions>
<reactions>
<network>

17. <actions>
<item object="link" verb="like">3</item>
* Object and verb attributes are adopted from the activitystrea.ms project.

18. <actions>
<item object="photo" verb="comment">3</item>

19. <actions>
<item object="status" verb="update">1</item>

20. <reactions>
<item object="status" verb="like">1</item>

21. <reactions>

22. <network>
<item object="friends">621</item>

23. <network>
<item object="following">202</item>
<item object="followers">893</item>

24. ULML
<record>
<actions>
<item object="status" verb="post">124</item>
<item object="link" verb="share">10</item>
<item object="photo" verb="tag">42</item>
<item object="photo" verb="comment">15</item>
</actions>
<reactions>
<item object="status" verb="like">120</item>
<item object="photo" verb="comment">92</item>
<item object="photo" verb="tag">10</item>
</reactions>
<network>
<item object="connection">615</item>
<item object="density">0.2</item>
</network>
</record>

25. ULML
<record>
<actions>
<item object="status" verb="post">124</item>
<item object="link" verb="share">10</item>
<item object="photo" verb="tag">42</item>
<item object="photo" verb="comment">15</item>
</actions>
<reactions>
<item object="status" verb="like">120</item>
<item object="photo" verb="comment">92</item>
<item object="photo" verb="tag">10</item>
</reactions>
<network>
<item object="connection">615</item>
<item object="density">0.2</item>
</network>
</record>

26. twitter.com/arikan (2008)
interconnections between people who are followed by arikan

27. Would you share your
user labor metrics?

28. BURAK ARIKAN
arikan@burak-arikan.com
www.userlabor.org