Disrupting the Machine: Web 2.0 Power to the People
While reading the texts for this week I could not help but to think about a conversation many of us had about Michel de Certeau’s The Practice of Everyday Life. The main question that was posed was about the possibility of “tactics” being enacted within structures (like the web) that are inevitably constrained. In other words, because the capabilities of any particular information platform are predetermined and only customizable within a particular set of parameters subversion is limited. However, it seems many of the articles were actually illustrating how web 2.0 makes it possible to use technology for purposes that it was not originally designed for. For instance in, Karl Stolley’s article, “Integrating Social Media in Existing Work Environments: The Case of Delicious,” he claims “The customization and integration of Delicious that I present here, then, can also be applied to other SMAs, which collectively provide a model of how technical communicators may ‘‘subvert’’ and ‘‘open up’’ a centralized system ‘‘and find ways to build in support for activities that it excludes’’ (Spinuzzi, 2003, p. 204)” (351). He continues to suggest a very specific way to use Delicious that will help technical communicators better understand the end user.
Because I am particularly interested in the issues of the “digital divide” and access I cannot help but to consider two important issues with this kind of “subversion” and/or social action. First, if social media applications are being used to rally support for social action then access to such technology is going to only increase in importance. Obviously, an additional concern is that access is not necessarily enough in and of itself because users need to also be comfortable with the utilizing the technology and/or know where to find it. Second, what is considered subverting? In other words, is Harfouh’s recount of using MyBO a type of subversion? Or is it a fully appropriate use of such technology? Certainly the fact that Chris Hughes, Director of Online Organizing, for the Obama campaign was also one of the founders of Facebook suggests that the use of the technology was in line with the goals, as well as the intentions of use, for the platform. I do not mean to suggest that Obama’s campaign was subversive I just wonder if it is in danger of being considered so because it used the web in ways that had not been done before. If the campaign efforts were considered subversive would that leave room for the stronger and more dominant communities that already have a large presence in technological fields work to silence more effectively small grassroots efforts?
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I share your concern for the way in which we understand MyBO as productive, especially in light of the consumerist frame that citizenship is being pitched. In other words, did MyBO really connect people together on issues, or did it help brand people in such a way as to allow them to feel political and thus part of the larger public sphere? You question of access undercuts this nicely. As does Missy's questions about the extent to which we see these systems as democratized.
ReplyDeleteDoes MyBO represent how Web 2.0 can capture the voice of the people, or does it demonstrate how some people who have access to channels can use those channels to the fruition of their vision?
The interesting point you raise here is what does it mean to be subversive? I really think the term “subversive” complicates what's going on with 2.0+ technologies, and in some way sort of romanticizes the whole “rugged individualist” spirit of the web. The Obama campaign's use of the web in ways that had not been seen before seems more innovative than subversive. Exploiting existing technologies to a point of failure is what Internet innovation has always been about. And I think the exploitation is more evident when technologies are used in unintended ways – with both democratic and non-democratic outcomes.
ReplyDeleteThe question of access always bothers me. I wonder whether what Obama and his team did here in US with the effective use of Web 2.0 technologies is possible for instance in Iran or Nepal. I also wonder whether factors like age and gender play out in social media use. Obama is said to have mobilized primarily the youths for his election campaigns and Facebook or twitter users are also not so much elder people or kids but mostly youths. So call it subversive or democratic potential of web 2.0 technologies or specifically social media, the scope as of now, I think, is limited...
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