Ethical Life through Web 2.0

Course by Trebor Scholz

URL =http://www.collectivate.net/the-social-web/

Is it feasible to live ethical, meaningful lives in the context of the Social Web today?

Course Description

Based on the rapid growth of participation in social life online and in mobile space-- from social news, referral, social search, media sharing, social bookmarking, tagging, virtual worlds and social networked games, social mapping, IM, social networking, blogging and dating, this class formulates a critical analysis (and critique) of the international Social Web with regard to privacy, intellectual property, and the utilization of social creation of value through the lens of a small number of case studies in the areas of education, political activism, and art. The course starts with a history of computer-facilitated networked sociality.

We’ll discuss the preconditions, motivations, and typologies of participation in order to then start to debunk the Web 2.0 ideology. The course concludes with an examination of the future of the Internet (mobile social space, net neutrality, and the changed nature of the digital divide) in order to then locate fields of possibility for social change.

We’ll study key theoretical texts including Yochai Benkler’s "Wealth of networks," Henry Jenkins’ "Convergence culture," Trebor Scholz’ "What the MySpace generation should know about working for free," Jurgen Habermas' speech about the Internet and the public sphere, Fred Turner’s "Where the counterculture met the new economy," Jeff Jarvis’ “Who owns the wisdom of the crowd? The crowd.,” Nicholas Carr’s “Sharecropping the long tail,” Michael Hardt’s “Affective labor,” Olga Goriunova’s “From art on networks to art on platforms“ and Adam Arvidsson’s “The crisis of value and the ethical economy.”

This is a theory-based course that also teaches you to participate, debate and analyze practices on the Social Web (e.g., the use of Facebook, Twitter, IM, blogs, SecondLife).

Some material from the Syllabus

Slidecast of lecture (sound): <http://tinyurl.com/2qy4pk>

Allen, Christopher. "Life With Alacrity: Tracing the Evolution of Social Software." Life With Alacrity. 13 Oct 2004. 12 Jul 2007 <http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/2004/10/tracing_the_evo.html>.

"History of the Internet." the history of computing project. 19 Mar 2001. 17 Jul 2007 <http://www.thocp.net/reference/internet/internet1.htm>.

Donath, Judith. "Sociable Media." Sociable Media Group - MIT Media Lab. 15 Apr 2004. 9 Jul 2007 <http://smg.media.mit.edu/papers/Donath/SociableMedia.encyclopedia.pdf>.

Turner, Fred. "Where the Counterculture Met the New Economy ." Stanford. 1 Jan 2007. 26 Aug 2007 <http://www.stanford.edu/~fturner/Turner%20Tech%20&%20Culture%2046%203.pdf>

"List of social networking websites - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Main Page - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 16 Jul 2007. 16 Jul 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites>.

Udell, Jon. "Tag mania sweeps the Web | InfoWorld | Column | 2005-07-20 | By Jon Udell." InfoWorld - Information Technology News, Computer Networking & Security. 2 Jul 2005. 26 Aug 2007 <http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/07/20/30OPstrategic_1.html>.

"Social Software Timeline / Many-to-Many Space." Socialtext Documentation / Socialtext Documentation. 1 Jan 2007. 26 Aug 2007 <http://www.socialtext.net/m2m/index.cgi?social_software_timeline>.

Glickman, Matt, and Mark Horton. "Netnews History - Usenet Server, Jim Ellis, Tom Truscott, Steve Bellovin." Internet history, design, web, email.... 1 Jan 1996. 17 Jul 2007 <http://www.livinginternet.com/u/ui_netnews.htm>.

Boeder, Piter. "Habermas' heritage." First Monday. 21 Aug 2005. 26 Aug 2007 <http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_9/boeder/>.

Kellner, Douglas. "Habermas, the Public Sphere, and Democracy: A Critical Intervention." Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. 1 Aug 2007. 26 Aug 2007 <http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/papers/habermas.htm>.

Rosen, Jay. "PressThink: The People Formerly Known as the Audience." Department of Journalism at New York University. 27 Jun 2006. 16 Jul 2007 <http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2006/06/27/ppl_frmr.html>.

Heuer, Chris. "Social Media Club- The Importance of Social Media." Social Media Club. 19 Sep 2006. 11 Jul 2007 <http://www.socialmediaclub.org/2006/09/19/the-importance-of-social-media/>.

Lanier, Jaron. "Edge; DIGITAL MAOISM: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism By Jaron Lanier." Edge. 30 May 2006. 31 Jul 2007 <http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/lanier06/lanier06_index.html>.

"Reactions to Digital Maoism. Many-to-Many:." Many-to-Many:. 3 Feb 2006. 27 Jun 2007 <http://many.corante.com/archives/2006/06/07/reactions_to_digital_maoism.php>.

Best, David. "Web 2.0Next Big Thing or Next Big Internet Bubble?." Lecture Web Information Systems. 11 Jan 2006. 9 Jul 2007 <http://page.mi.fu-berlin.de/~best/uni/WIS/Web2.pdf>.

O'Reilly, Tim. "Not 2.0?." O'Reilly Radar. 5 Aug 2005. 9 Jul 2007 <http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2005/08/not_20.html>.

O'Reilly, Tim. "O'Reilly -- What Is Web 2.0." O'Reilly Network -- Developers' Hub -- web development, open source development, open and emerging technologies. 30 Sep 2005. 9 Jul 2007 <http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html>.

Scharmen, Fred (2006, May). "You Must Be Logged In To Do That!" Yale Arch 752b <http://www.sevensixfive.net/myspace/myspacetwopointoh.html>

Arvidsson, Adam. "Crisis of Value and the Ethical Economy - P2P Foundation." The Foundation for P2P Alternatives - P2P Foundation. 26 Jun 2007. 26 Aug 2007 <http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Crisis_of_Value_and_the_Ethical_Economy#Text>.

Hiram Soltren, Jose, and Harvey Jones. "Facebook: Threats to Privacy." MIT. 1 Jan 2005. 26 Aug 2007 <http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/6.805/student-papers/fall05-papers/facebook.pdf>.

Barnes, Susan. "A privacy paradox: Social networking in the United States." First Monday. 1 Jan 2006. 26 Aug 2007 <http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_9/barnes/index.html>.

Carr, Nicholas. "Nicholas Carr: The net is being carved up into information plantations | Technology | The Guardian." Guardian Unlimited home | Guardian Unlimited. 17 May 2007. 26 Aug 2007 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/may/17/media.newmedia>.

"Web Worker Daily  ; Blog Archive The Two-Edged Sword of Web 2.0 Web Worker Daily . 29 Mar 2007. 26 Aug 2007 <http://webworkerdaily.com/2007/03/29/the-two-edged-sword-of-web-20/>.

Mchenry, Robert. "Web 2.0: Hope or Hype? - Britannica Blog." Britannica Blog. 25 Jun 2007. 9 Jul 2007 <http://blogs.britannica.com/blog/main/2007/06/web-20-hope-or-hype/>.

Hardie, Martin . "The Factory without Walls." The Factory without Walls. 1 Jan 2005. 26 Aug 2007 <http://openflows.org/~auskadi/factorywoutwalls.pdf>.

"Facebook | Terms." Facebook |. 24 May 2007. 12 Jun 2007 <http://www.facebook.com/terms.php>.

Catone, Josh . "Web 2.0 Backpack: Web Apps for Students." Read/WriteWeb. 22 Jun 2007. 27 Aug 2007 <http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/web_20_backpack_web_apps_for_students.php>.

"The Web Credibility Project: Guidelines - Stanford University." Stanford University. 1 Jun 2002. 27 Aug 2007 <http://www.webcredibility.org/guidelines/index.html>.

"Hello Garci scandal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Main Page - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 24 Jun 2005. 20 Jun 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello_Garci_scandal#_note-10>.

Zuckerman, Ethan. "My heart is in Accra “; Mapping land distribution in Bahrain." Ethan Zuckerman. 31 Oct 2006. 20 Jun 2007 <http://ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=1085ap/>.

The Internet and youth political participation. 1 Dec 2006. 20 Jun 2007 <http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_8/kann/#author>

"Kiva.org - Loans that change lives." Kiva.org - Loans that change lives. 1 Jan 2004. 20 Jun 2007 <http://www.kiva.org/>.

Dale, Michael, and Warren Sack. "Metavid." Metavid. 27 Apr 2007. 20 Jun 2007 <http://metavid.ucsc.edu/>.

"FAQ." wikileaks.org. 1 Jan 2007. 20 Jun 2007 <http://wikileaks.org/faq>.

Kann, M. First Monday. 27 Jul 2007. 31 Jul 2007 <http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_8/kann/#author>

Gefen, David, and Catherine M. Ridings. " Virtual Community Attraction:Why People Hang Out Online." Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. 1 Nov 2004. 31 Jul 2007 <http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue1/ridings_gefen.html#s2>.

Scholz, Trebor. " What the MySpace generation should know about working for free - Trebor Scholz 'journalisms' - Collectivate.net." home - Collectivate.net. 3 Apr 2007. 26 Aug 2007 <http://www.collectivate.net/journalisms/2007/4/3/what-the-myspace-generation-should-know-about-working-for-free.html>.

Roush, Wade. "Technology Review: The Moral Panic over Social-Networking Sites." Technology Review: The Authority on the Future of Technology. 7 Aug 2006. 26 Aug 2007 <http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17266&ch=infotech>

Jarvis, Jeff. "BuzzMachine Blog Archive Who owns the wisdom of the crowd? The crowd.." BuzzMachine. 26 Oct 2005. 12 Jun 2007 <http://www.buzzmachine.com/2005/10/26/who-owns-the-wisdom-of-the-crowd-the-crowd/>.

Wyrick, Brian, and Dmytri Kleiner. "Infoenclosure 2.0." Mute magazine - Culture and politics after the net. 29 Jan 2007. 26 Aug 2007 <http://www.metamute.org/en/InfoEnclosure-2.0>.

Terranova, Tiziana. "Free Labor." Universitat Oberta de Catalunya UOC. 15 Aug 2000. 12 Jun 2007 <http://www.uoc.edu/in3/hermeneia/sala_de_lectura/t_terranova_free_labor.htm>.

Pollard, Dave. "Finding People to Make a Living With." Recently Changed Weblogs. 7 Feb 2007. 26 Aug 2007 <http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2007/03/26.html#a1818>.

Rauch, Peter. "Confessions of an Aca/Fan: The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins: Fable and Other Moral Tales: A Study in Game Ethics (Part One)." Confessions of an Aca-Fan: The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins. 1 Aug 2007. 26 Aug 2007 <http://www.henryjenkins.org/2007/08/games_and_ethics.html>.

Jarvis, Jeff. "New News: Deconstructing the newspaper." BuzzMachine . 18 Jan 2006. 26 Aug 2007 <http://www.buzzmachine.com/2006/01/18/new-news-deconstructing-the-newspaper/>.

Cascio, Jamais. "WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: The Rise of the Participatory Panopticon." WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future. 4 May 2005. 12 Jul 2007 <http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/002651.html>.