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A Biographic Case Study of Peer Production Mechanisms on Eksisozluk.Com User generated dissent: a biographic case study of peer production mechanisms on Eksisozluk.com Ivo Ozan Furman Goldsmiths College, University of London PhD in Sociology 1 I declare that the work presented in this thesis in my own 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express gratitude to my supervisor Brian Alleyne for his encouragement and guidance that allowed me to complete this dissertation. Also, I am particularly grateful for the assistance given by David Oswell, Nirmal Puwar and Chetan Bhatt who have all contributed with their experience and knowledge to this dissertation. I wish to acknowledge the support provided by Bridget Ward and everyone else at the department of sociology at Goldsmiths. I would also like to thank Beyza for her comments and endless support throughout this long and ardous journey. My colleagues and friends in London, Berlin, Bucharest and Istanbul, thank you for putting up with me during all those frustrating moments in the past six years. You were always there for me when I needed it. 3 ABSTRACT In a public sphere wherein corporate monopolies of mass media networks prevail and anti- democratic practices suppressing the freedom of speech are the norm, the widespread adoption of the Internet in Turkey has engendered the emergence of a sphere of dissent wherein participants use social media and Web 2.0 platforms to engage in cyberactivism, participate in networked social movements, and express alternative, non-hegemonic political identities and discourses. Sözlüks, a genre of content hosting platforms that can broadly be described as urban dictionaries, are unique within this ecology insofar as they rely on collaborative mechanisms to produce and organize dissent. Affording the oppurtunity to express oneself to the Turkish-speaking online audience in an anonymous manner, sözlüks have become safe havens for free speech within the context of a country historically known for the censure of the press and the public sphere. Although it has been argued that engagement in spaces similar to sözlüks constitute a form of digital labour, this dissertation argues that participation and the collaborative process found in sözlüks constitutes a unique model of peer production. The commons-based peer-production model used by sözlüks generates a constant steam of publicly accessible and at times, subversive information. User generated dissent explores communal, commons and automated aspects to the peer production mechanisms driving Ekşisözlük, the oldest urban dictionary in Turkish cyberspace in a holistic manner. It attempts to link the model of collaboration found on Ekşisözlük with other studies on different peer production models found elsewhere online. Opting for a mixed methodology that combines ethnographic fieldwork with a socio- technical systems and Biography of Artefacts (BoA) approach, User generated dissent combines conventional data collection methods with using the Wayback Machine (WM) to build a longitudinal case-study to document the collaborative process that has made Ekşisözlük a unique and influential actor within the ecology of Turkish cyberspace. Keywords: peer-production, cyberspace, Ekşisözlük, biography of artefacts, Wayback Machine 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................................................................................... 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................................................3 ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................4 TABLE OF CONTENTS...................................................................................................................5 INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................................8 OUTLINE...............................................................................................................................15 CHAPTER I: HISTORY OF MASS MEDIA AND THE PROPAGANDA MODEL IN NEOLIBERAL TURKEY........................................................................................................................................18 1.OTTOMAN PERIOD...........................................................................................................25 Tanzimat (1826-1876)..................................................................................................25 Istibdat (1878-1908) & the second Ottoman constitutional monarchy (1908-1918)......27 2.WAR OF INDEPENDENCE & DISSOLUTION OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE (1919-1923)28 3. EARLY REPUBLICAN PERIOD (1923-59)........................................................................29 4. ERA OF COUP D'ETATS & POLITICAL INSTABILITY (1960-1983)..................................34 5. TURGUT ÖZAL PERIOD (1983-1993)..............................................................................38 6. COALITION GOVERNMENTS AND POLITICAL INSTABILITY (1993-2003)....................40 7. AK PARTY AND MASS-MEDIA MONOPOLIES (2003-)....................................................41 8. EMERGENCE OF A SPHERE OF DISSENT ONLINE......................................................43 Social media and urban dictionaries during the Gezi Protests.....................................46 CHAPTER II: CHARACTERISTICS OF TURKEY'S CYBERSPACE AND ONLINE PUBLIC........50 1. a) ARPANET: THE ORIGINS OF THE INTERNET AS A NETWORKING TECHNOLOGY.52 i) A short history of computers and electric circuits.......................................................53 1. b) NSFNET, TCP/IP INTERNET PROTOCOL SUITE AND THE WORLD WIDE WEB......54 1. c) THE 'BIG BANG' OF THE INTERNET IN 1994.............................................................57 1. d) DOT COM CRASH OF 2000.........................................................................................58 2. HISTORY OF THE INTERNET AS A NETWORKING TECHNOLOGY IN TURKEY..........61 i) The first connection: 12th of April 1993.....................................................................61 ii) A tale of two networks: ULAKNET AND TURNET.....................................................62 3. a) THE DIGITAL DIVIDE IN TURKEY................................................................................67 i) Defining the digital divide..........................................................................................70 ii) Statistics on the digital divide in Turkey....................................................................72 3. b) SMALL BUT ENGAGED ONLINE PUBLIC....................................................................79 4. a) CULTURAL ATTITUDES TOWARDS EMERGING TECHNOLOGICAL PRACTICES....80 i) Technophobia & the Fear of the Internet in Flawed Democracies.............................83 4. b) CENSORSHIP AND SURVEILLANCE IN TURKEY......................................................84 4. c) STRATEGIES OF INTERNET SURVEILLANCE BY THE TURKISH STATE.................86 5 4. d) STRATEGIES OF CENSORSHIP BY THE TURKISH STATE.......................................87 i.) Bureau for Telecommunications (TIB)......................................................................87 ii.) Legal Framework.....................................................................................................88 iii.) Internet filters..........................................................................................................90 4. e) NEEDING ANONYMITY: CONSEQUENCES OF CENSORSHIP & SURVEILLANCE..91 5. POSITIONING SÖZLÜKS AS ACTORS IN TURKISH CYBERSPACE..............................94 6. THE TURKISH HITCHERHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY...........................................98 CHAPTER III: LITERATURE REVIEW.........................................................................................100 1. DEFINING THE COMMONS AND PEER-PRODUCTION...............................................101 2. PARTICIPATION AND THE ECONOMY OF INFORMATIONAL CAPITALISM.................107 3. CRITIQUES OF INFORMATIONAL CAPITALIST ECONOMY.........................................112 4. PEER PRODUCTION OR DIGITAL LABOUR?...............................................................120 5. PEER PRODUCTION AND EKŞİSÖZLÜK......................................................................122 CHAPTER IV: OUTLINING A METHODOLOGY FOR THE STUDY OF EKŞİSÖZLÜK..............123 CASE STUDY AND ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELDWORK.........................................................124 A SOCIO-TECHNICAL APPROACH TO STUDYING PEER PRODUCTION SYTEMS.......127 BIOGRAPHY OF ARTEFACTS...........................................................................................129 THE WAYBACK MACHINE AS A BIOGRAPHIC METHOD.................................................131 CHAPTER V: A BIOGRAPHY OF EKŞİSÖZLÜK (1999-2013)....................................................135 1. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COMMUNITY COMMONS (1999-2002)..............................137 1. a) GRAPHIC INTERFACE AND LOGO...........................................................................140 1. b) DEVELOPING THE CONTROL PANEL ON SOURTIMES.ORG.................................141 1. c) DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARCHIVAL COMMUNITY COMMONS...............................141 1. d) THE SUMMITZ FEATURE..........................................................................................143 2. INTRODUCTION OF PEER PRODUCTION MECHANISMS (2002-2005)......................145 2. a) SNITCHING, INFORMING AND FILTERING SYSTEMS.............................................148
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