Net 102 – Topic 2.1 Power and Economy

Internet Studies 102/502: The Internet and Everyday Life

 Net 102

 Topic 2.1: Power and Economy
Having built up a collection of experiences from a variety of perspectives, including personal, scholarly, journalistic and so forth, we now look into how these illuminate different facets of the Internet's relationship to society and ourselves: community, economy, power and identity. By this time, you would have, through your reading, work on your first essay and discussions with others, accumulated a fair few number of examples of changes to everyday life mediated by the Internet. These were accumulated via different topics (sex, health etc). You were also asked to organise your thinking along four main analytical areas: community, power, economy and identity. Now, we've come to the point where we review these categories and how each topic has illustrated some aspect of how daily life is intertwined with the Internet in terms of identity, community, politics and the economy. You will be presented with how some other people have written and studied the Internet in terms of these themes, in order to make broader connections with your own work. (Curtin, 2010)

 READ

Brendan Gilbert et al., "Web Content/Social Networking," Blog, Corporate Power in New Media, May 14, 2008. Archived by WebCite.
This student blog states, "People's barriers are down and they fail to realize the extent to which corporations affect their online behavior". How true is this statement?

Mansell, R. (2004). Political Economy, Power and New Media. New Media & Society, 6(1), 96-105. In E-Reserve.This scholarly article makes the case for analysis and research into the political and economical aspects of the Internet. Note down the reasons Mansell gives and think of examples to illustrate.

DISCUSS

1. Power operates in many ways on the Internet, let's take one example, that of Internet access, to discuss power (no more than half a page):
   1. Are there limits to when, what (sites), how much, and where you access the Internet?
   2. How can you transgress those limits and what are the possible consequences?
   3. Is it possible to lose your access and what are the ways this might happen?
2. How do economic relationships conflict with or support existing power structures through the Internet? Choose an example from your first module and discuss on the discussion boards.

Submission to discussion board: Laura Herbert
In the article "Political economy, power and new media", it was interesting to note that the internet is affected by economy, "The rate of entry of new dot com's is now being tempered by disaffected investors and by a general downturn in the rate of investment in digital technologies."(pg96). I am assuming from the readings and research that we have done for the course that the internet is a business (a very big multi dimensional conglomerate) and as such economic down turn and upswing create discord across the broad financial foundation platform. The article was a little frustrating in respect (and I agree with Katrina on this) that whenever it looked like the author was getting into more depth on subjects such as economy or new and old media innovation, the matter was left unresolved with "we need comparable empirical Studies" or "more research is needed". What I found quite interesting in the conclusion is the summation of "the way that power is embedded in new media practices and influences how people's lives are being mediated by new media". Quite ponderous that it seems a reality now that people live their lives by new media, phones - twitter/Facebook, internet cafe's and the like, so why shouldn't the large corporations utilise that factor and economise on it.

Topic review Web 101 Topic: 2.3 Social Networking

Web Communications 101: Communication and Collaboration Online
Topic 2.3 – Social Networking


Laura's Personal referral notes on unit.

Introduction:

The notion of the Internet as a way to establish and nurture social connections is as old as the first email, while studies of virtual communities date back to the 1980s. However, over the last few years, the use of dedicated platforms for social networking has gained popularity. These platforms, typically web-based and leveraging all the technological advances of Web 2.0, offer a variety of ways to share information with friends. However, the widespread use of these services has raised a number of questions over issues such as privacy and the potential for misuse. (Curtin University Topic 2.3 Notes, 2010)

Social Networking Software.

Social interaction via the internet is hardly a new phenomenon (Curtin, 2010). Millions of users were fast to adopt and quickly increase the popularity of the internet as a means of communication, and as such now rely on the tools/platforms to maintain social connections. Social networking has seen exponential growth within the last 5 years, dedicated networking platforms providing a centralised hub as means of communicating and sharing with acquaintances and work mates. Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, Bebo and LinkedIn are now the major default sites for users.

I watched http://commoncraft.com , short explanation of social networking websites and why they are popular. Located on YouTube – Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship.
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), article 11Social Networking in Plain English.

e.g.  Description: I know One, and One knows Two, Two knows Three and Three has a job for me etc.

Social Networking – Reading

boyd, d. m., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). 

(Curtin 2010) - As you have just read, boyd & Ellison define social networking platforms in terms of what they allow users to do. To reiterate, users can:

• Construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system.
• Articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection.
• View and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.
  In the short time that social networking platforms have been popular, they have gathered significant attention from academics. Issues such as privacy and the formation of identity online have proven of particular interest. 

(Curtin, 2010)

Privacy and Social Networks

There is a huge issue of privacy concerning social networks. Social sites are the public face of much larger corporations, bearing that in mind they are ultimately businesses. Who, apart from you the user has access to the data that you submit to the network. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada produced a video that is accessible via YouTube: Privacy and Social Networks. "By posting user content to any part of the site you automatically grant the company an irrevocable perpetual non exclusive transferable fully paid worldwide license to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or part) and distribute such user content for any purpose." (OPCC, 2007) Social network viability is dependent on their members and the information that is given. Who values that information? Large corporate businesses.

Facebook "terms of service" (0ct 4, 2010) Section 2: Sharing your content and information:

Sharing Your Content and Information

You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your TOSback, constantly monitors the terms of service for various websites including social networking sites, and reports any changes as they are made. (Curtin, 2010)privacy and application settings. In addition:

• For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License"). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.
• When you delete IP content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a computer. However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time (but will not be available to others).
• When you use an application, your content and information is shared with the application.  We require applications to respect your privacy, and your agreement with that application will control how the application can use, store, and transfer that content and information.  (To learn more about Platform, read our Privacy Policy and About Platform page.)
• When you publish content or information using the "everyone" setting, it means that you are allowing everyone, including people off of Facebook, to access and use that information, and to associate it with you (i.e., your name and profile picture).
• We always appreciate your feedback or other suggestions about Facebook, but you understand that we may use them without any obligation to compensate you for them (just as you have no obligation to offer them).

Laura: I actually went and read all of Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. It is interesting reading as even though they say your property i.e. photos etc are yours they belong to Facebook once they are up loaded then posted to the site.

TOSBack

Understandably then, 'Terms of Service' and privacy policies have become hotly debated topics, particularly in the arena of social networking. Ultimately, the data gathered by these sites has value in an information economy.

This site, TOSBack constantly monitors the terms of service for various websites including social networking sites, and reports any changes as they are made. (Curtin, 2010)

PayPal: TOSBack recorded a new version of the User Agreement, 15^th October 2010.
Amazon: TOSBack recorded a new version of the MP3 Music Service: Terms of Use, 12^th October 2010.
Facebook: TOSBack recorded a new version of the Privacy Policy, 9^th October 2010.

The Ephemerality of Social Networking

It is too early in internet history to make a definitive statement about the future of social networking and its role in online society.

"Does anyone remember Friendster?

In 2003, the site (considered the first major social networking platform) was set to take the world by storm. Google offered to buy the company for US$30 Million. Yet now the company is in rapid decline. Similar fates have befallen other social networking companies.
Two years ago, MySpace was the social networking site of choice for many. In Australia at least, the attention has now switched to Facebook.
Many have predicted the end of Facebook as Twitter rises in popularity.

Ultimately, it is impossible to tell how this competition will resolve itself. Indeed, it is tempting to imagine that a new social networking site will replace the current leader regularly.
One way that this problem may be addressed is through the implementation of open systems such as Opensocial, that enable interoperability between social networking sites, ensuring that being on one does not affect one's ability to communicate with users of another system." (Curtin, 2010)

Activity one – Introducing Twitter:

Twitter is a web-based communication platform that has alternatively been described as a social networking service and a micro-blogging application. For this activity we would like you to set up a Twitter account for yourself (Ideally using the username you selected at the beginning of the unit). (Curtin, 2010)

Join twitter. If finding anything relevant to the Web 101 course # tag. E.g. #web101, so others can read the tweet.

My Username is loulounilly

I watched http://beta.twittervision.com/ (I do have to admit it is highly addictive to see other people's photos posted from around the world and pin pointed via Google map.)

Reference
Lefever, L (2007) YouTube,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYKVc&feature=player_embedded



Canadian Privacy Commission (2007) YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7gWEgHeXcA&feature=player_embedded#!


Facebook (4^th Oct 2010) Terms of service,
http://www.facebook.com/terms.php?ref=pf


Curtin University Topic 2.3 information notes. Social Networking. SP 3 (2010)