The unseen labor begind our digital infrastructure
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The unseen labor begind our digital infrastructure
the dominant design patterns of social-media technologies have constrained social and political possibilities, including the cultural options and possible power structures.
Nathan Schneider • Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life
The digital sphere is artificially built and those who operate it get to set its rules in ways that are enforced in code, which is to say that are enforced as the laws of the system itself. That is how structural power is established. Many parts of the digital landscape are presented on the surface as consumer goods (social, search) or as markets (... See more
Robin Berjon • Digital Sovereignty
In Lanier’s telling, this digital landscape shifted once the success of Google’s ad program revealed that you could make a lot of money on user-generated creative output, which led to the rise of social-media companies such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Initially, these companies emphasized their simple, elegant-looking interfaces and their ... See more
Cal Newport • The Rise of the Internet’s Creative Middle Class
This hardening will reveal the root problem. Despite many people contributing to the tools and services that now dominate our lives, most people have no stake in them. To cite just one example, the four million people who drive for Uber probably own less of the company combined than a single dentist in New Jersey with Vanguard in their portfolio.
Yancey Strickler • The Ownership Crisis
the internet complex was promoted as inherently democratic, decentralizing, and anti-hierarchical.