Netmodern: Interventions in Digital Sociology
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NETMODERN: INTERVENTIONS IN DIGITAL SOCIOLOGY Chris Brauer Goldsmiths Department of Sociology University of London December, 2010 Submission for PhD in Sociology ABSTRACT The techno-economic grid of the Internet looks set to fulfil its autopoietic potentials as a global and multi-dimensionally immersive knowledge and memory archival network. This research project moves through a series of Digital Sociology case studies that mimic the changes in paradigms of the WWW from 2005-2010 in the forms of Web 1.0 to 2.0 and beyond to augmented reality and the cloud. Netmodern social theory is an emergent and speculative product of the research findings of this thesis and the subjective experiences of the researcher in experiencing and explaining digital realities in the research. All of the case studies employ practice-based approaches of original investigation through digital interventions completely immersed in particular waves of innovation and change. The role of the researcher shifts from administrator to mediator and observer as the very fabric of the social web transforms and evolves. The suggestion of the research findings is that you need to actually look at everything differently in order to study the research objects of emergent social agency and forms in digital media. Existing forms of critical analysis and methodological frameworks, particularly those concerned with conceptual models of media literacy or collective intelligence are insufficient as explanatory methods. Studying media literacy is most concerned with ‘how’ we create and interact in online social life beyond issues of simple accessibility. The focus of collective intelligence research is ‘what’ knowledge is available for interaction and a canvas for relationships between agency and knowledge forms. All of the case studies in this research project speak to and critique the intersections and relationships of emergent social agency and forms prevalent in Digital Sociology. The collective case studies explore online academic communities (BlogScholar), agency and popularity in the Twitter social network (Twae) and a variety of representations of collective intelligence in action (Web 2.0 cases studies). The research results suggest that the Internet is not so much intersecting with as it is being culture, economy, and technology. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is a pleasure to thank those who made this research possible. The process of thesis writing is an irregular and uneven act, like seeking firm footing in a rushing river. You find yourself broad upon the narrow banks of learning and new forms of knowledge. You learn to rely on those you trust and hold you up when you slip. I would like to thank my supervisors Brian Alleyne and Robert Zimmer for intellectual challenge and patience and guidance every step of the way. And my wife Jennifer for steadfast love and support and some timely edits in the final draft. She inspires me in the smallest acts and timely interventions of our happy life together. This thesis is dedicated to my parents for a lifetime of warmth and compassion. They taught me not to be afraid to reach out, in every act of life, for that which appears just beyond your grasp. 3 I ABSTRACT 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 3 List of Figures 7 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 8 CHAPTER TWO: DIGITAL SOCIOLOGY, MEDIA LITERACY, AND COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE 17 2.1 Introduction 17 2.2 Sociological Relevance 21 2.3 Media Literacy 32 Ways of people understanding media 38 Ways of media understanding people 40 Ways of understanding social life through media 43 2.4 Collective Intelligence 45 2.5 Progressing the Literature 57 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 59 3.1 Introduction 59 3.2 Research Paradigm 60 3.3 Research Methods 65 3.4 Critical Realism 71 CHAPTER FOUR: INTRODUCING BLOGSCHOLAR 80 4.1 Introduction 80 4.2 Inspiring BlogScholar – Practical Examples 83 4.3 Managing a Community 87 Getting Started 87 Operations 88 4.4 Participating in a Community 89 BlogScholar statistics 89 Surveying the BlogScholar community 96 4.5 Conclusion 101 Possibilities and Aspirations 103 CHAPTER FIVE: IT TAKES TWAE TO TANGO 106 5.1 Introduction 106 4 5.2 Introducing Twitter 108 5.3 Introducing Twae 112 Emancipatory Potential 117 Spontaneous Creativity 123 Ethics and Etiquette on Twitter 127 5.4 Twae reach and depth 132 Functional Media Literacies 144 Considerations 150 5.5 Conclusion 153 Aspirations and Opportunities 156 CHAPTER SIX: WEB 2.0 CASES – TWEETS AND WHISTLES 160 6.1 Introduction 160 6.2 Digital Hacktivism 165 6.3 Cloud Computing 174 6.4 Augmented Reality 177 6.5 Wikileaks 183 6.6 Netflix 193 6.7 Gold Farming 198 6.8 Conclusion 203 Possibilities and Aspirations 206 CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSION & NETMODERN THEORY 209 7.1 Conclusion 209 Role of the Researcher in Digital Interventions 210 Emergent Collective Intelligences in Digital Sociology 211 Media Literacies in Digital Sociology 212 Qualitative Improvement of Methods 214 Emergent Themes on Reality and Knowledge 215 7.2 Introduction to Netmodern 216 7.3 The Map, the Mapmaker, and the Territories 220 7.4 The Dark Matter of Élan Collective 233 7.5 Quantum Sociology 240 Cause, Effect and Doubt 242 Superpositions and Ideas 243 Fluid dynamics of the Observer and the Observed 244 5 Theory, Objects and Truth 245 Social Uncertainty Principle 247 Duality in Balance 248 Entropy and the Arrow of Time 249 Resolving Hardy’s Paradox in Social Life 251 7.6 Yoga of Knowledge 252 REFERENCES 261 6 List of Figures Figure 1: Netmodern Performance ‘Map’ (NPM) ....................................................................... 11 Figure 2: Thesis project research design ...................................................................................... 61 Figure 3: BlogScholar website traffic by month .......................................................................... 91 Figure 4: BlogScholar website traffic for September, 2006 ........................................................ 92 Figure 5: BlogScholar website traffic by country ........................................................................ 96 Figure 6: BlogScholar Netmodern Performance 'Map' (NPM) .................................................. 102 Figure 7: The Notifcator ............................................................................................................ 109 Figure 8: Most tweets by accounts with approx. 1000 followers .............................................. 110 Figure 9: Accounts joining Twitter from particular countries ................................................... 110 Figure 10: Tweet volume on the Twae account by 2009 month ................................................ 111 Figure 11: WeFollow (http://wefollow.com) category of Fiction .............................................. 113 Figure 12: Twae followers from 17 August to 16 October 2009 ............................................... 114 Figure 13: Days of Twae's tweets .............................................................................................. 115 Figure 14: Times of Twae's tweets (GMT) ................................................................................ 115 Figure 15: From Blogscholar in Broadcast to Twae in Networks & Nodes .............................. 119 Figure 16: Goals, Research, and Depth for the Twae project .................................................... 121 Figure 17: Twae Netmodern Performance ‘Map’ (NPM) ......................................................... 154 Figure 18: Web 2.0 Netmodern Performance ‘Map’ (NPM) ..................................................... 204 Figure 19: Netmodern Performance ‘Map’ (NPM) ................................................................... 224 Figure 20: Model of collective intelligence ............................................................................... 229 Figure 21: IEML semantic dictionary ........................................................................................ 230 7 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Existing models for interpreting social life like realism, materialism, idealism, or post- modernism are insufficient to describe and explain the results of digital research conducted in this thesis project. In 2002, Webster argued that it is not just the quantitative leap in digital information that creates an ‘information society’, but that “the character of information is such as to have transformed how we live” (9). This argument suggests we need to look beyond the standard sociological criteria of technological, economic, occupational, spatial, or cultural change to understand innovation and the impact of the Internet on society. From a structural perspective, communications on the Internet through the duration of this research project progressed from the ‘web as platform’ (Web 1.0) to the ‘web as network’ (Web 2.0) and beyond to suggesting various augmented or semantic versions of the ‘web as metaverse’ (Web 3.0?) seamlessly integrating virtual and offline worlds. But the integral reality worldview of Netmodern, the emergent theory of this research, suggests a relationship of equivalency for social life and being virtual. Netmodern theory is an emergent theory of Digital Sociology. As a critical paradigm of reality Netmodern is a response to the lack of interpretive methods for the realities encountered and investigated in this research project and is nothing less than an attempt to rethink particular aspects of social theory and methodology in light of the problem spaces opened up in the work. Just as road repair starts from a theoretical premise of material durability,