kcb206 new media: internet self and beyond tutorial 4 · kcb206 – new media: internet self and...
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KCB206 – NEW MEDIA: INTERNET SELF
AND BEYOND
TUTORIAL 4
Darryl Woodford
@dpwoodford
• Blog Q & A and Demos
• 5-Minute Reviews
• Reading Follow-Up
• Activity: Crowdfunding & Other Revenue Sources
• Discussion: Bitcoin – Alternative Economy?
• Case Study Work
• Reminders & Questions
BLOG Q&A
• Problems?
• Features?
• Questions?
5 MINUTE REVIEWS
• 10am: Isabella Ford (W3), Shu Yan Wu, Tom Sinclair,
Gabriel Apel, Nicholas Harris
• 1pm: Courtney Ohmenzetter, Emily Arce Cook, Tiarne
Bishop, Rosie Greenwell
• Short Q & A after each presentation
READING 1: ZITTRAIN (2009)
Mechanical Turk – some stats
• Survey administered on Mturk
(2009); 370 respondents
Source: Ross, Joel, et al. 2009. "Who are the turkers? worker demographics in amazon mechanical turk." Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine, USA, Tech. Available from: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~jwross/pubs/SocialCode-2009-01.pdf See also : Ross, Joel, et al. 2010. "Who are the crowdworkers?: shifting demographics in mechanical turk." CHI'10 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, Available from: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1753873
READING 1: ZITTRAIN (2009)
Source: Ross, Joel, et al. 2009. "Who are the turkers? worker demographics in amazon mechanical turk." Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine, USA, Tech. Available from: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~jwross/pubs/SocialCode-2009-01.pdf See also : Ross, Joel, et al. 2010. "Who are the crowdworkers?: shifting demographics in mechanical turk." CHI'10 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, Available from: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1753873
READING 1: ZITTRAIN (2009)
Source: Ross, Joel, et al. 2009. "Who are the turkers? worker demographics in amazon mechanical turk." Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine, USA, Tech. Available from: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~jwross/pubs/SocialCode-2009-01.pdf See also : Ross, Joel, et al. 2010. "Who are the crowdworkers?: shifting demographics in mechanical turk." CHI'10 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, Available from: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1753873
• Why? • Money • Entertainment • Competition -
Gamification? • Sense of
contribution?
READING 1: ZITTRAIN (2009)
Ethical implications:
• Exploitation? Surveillance? Alienation?
• Labouring in ignorance of what you are doing or even
contributing to a “greater bad”
• Fake reviews – nascent ways of subverting rating and
reviewing; will people come to expect it as they have done
with advertising?
• What if this enters the “real world” paying political
supporters; creating databases of people to pursue crime…
• Everything becomes commercialised – even kindness…
READING 1: ZITTRAIN (2009)
• Marxist critique
• Social media are not truly participatory;
• Colonised by corporations and their capitalist logic
• User participation = surplus value sold to advertisers
• Everyone is exploited:
– highly-paid workers in Internet companies,
– low-paid cloud labourers,
– unpaid users,
– workers in developing countries,
– slaves extracting minerals used to make devices
• Calls for an alternative, non-corporate internet (revolution)
ACTIVITY: REVENUE MODELS
• What is Kickstarter?
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg5q_TPfJZY
ACTIVITY: REVENUE MODELS
• Investigate some common online revenue models: YouTube, KickStarter, IndieGoGo
• Make note of: – Requirements (age / location)
– % of revenue received
– Market reach
• Hints – http://blog.launch.co/blog/i-aint-gonna-work-on-youtubes-farm-
no-more.html
– http://www.dailyrindblog.com/youtube-value-business-model/
– http://edwardspoonhands.com/post/71918119174/daily-grace-is-dead-long-live-grace
– Kafka on Kickstarter: Crowdsourcing, Capitalism and Arthttp://www.popmatters.com/column/169815-kafka-on-kickstarter-crowdsourcing-capitalism-and-art/
– The False Promise of Kickstarter http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/magazine/110225/the-false-promise-kickstarter
RECAP: YOUTUBE
• Harnessing open source content, networking and
sharing
Economic democracy (Tapscott and Williams 2007) or
exploitation through global outsourcing (Fuchs 2014; 2008)?
• Blurring of gift and commodity
• Revenue from advertising
RECAP: CROWDSOURCING
• A new way of venture financing facilitated by the Internet,
especially social networking dynamics.
• Someone has an idea.
• They need money to finance the venture.
• Instead of investing a large sum or approaching
traditional accredited investors to fund her project, they
turn to others to make small contributions.
RECAP: REWARDS
An example from music:
• Drummer Josh Freese in 2009 offered rewards to fund his new album: – $7 – can download album
– $50 – get a signed CD, T-shirt and personal thank-you call
– $1000 – Freese will wash your car, take you out drinking and then you‘d give each other haircuts in a courthouse parking lot.
– $20,000 Freese (+ other famous musicians) would take you mini-golfing.
• Publicity stunt that was hugely successful!
• Music and fan-based model.
RECAP: KICKSTARTER
• Funding platform for creative projects Music, film, art,
technology, design, food, publishing and other creative
fields.
• Diverse projects: big, small, serious, whimsical,
traditional, experimental, inspiring, entertaining…
• Enabling entrepreneurs and artists
• Supporting underdogs
• Encouraging creative self-marketing
• Creating a fan community
RECAP: KICKSTARTER
• Most successful project: Pebble watch https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/597507018/pebble-e-paper-watch-for-iphone-and-
android
RECAP: KICKSTARTER
As of March 23, 2014:
• Total projects launched: 138,496
(4,655 in progress)
• Success rate: 44%
• Total successfully funded projects: 58,292
• Total money pledged: $1,032,070,109
• Since Nov 2013, open to projects from Australia and NZ
RECAP: KICKSTARTER
• New form of commerce and patronage. – Not investment or lending.
– Project creators keep 100% ownership and control over their work. Instead, they offer products and experiences that are unique to each project.
• Business model: – Kickstarter 5% of funds raised
– Amazon 3-5% (collect money)
• “All or nothing funding” – A project must reach its funding goal before time runs out or no
money changes hands.
– Creators aren’t expected to develop their project without necessary funds;
– Test concepts without risk.
RECAP: KICKSTARTER
Criticisms:
• Big corporations or celebrities taking over, crowding out
smaller projects and making revenue (e.g. Veronica Mars
Film)
• Small projects supported by friends due to peer-pressure,
not true belief
RECAP: OTHER MODELS
• IndieGoGo and 8-bit Funding – “Keep it All” model; funding paid immediately to the project, regardless of whether or not the project reaches its funding goal by the deadline.
• RocketHub – “All & More” model; further rewards creators who reach their funding goals with tickets to its incubator-like "Launchpad Opportunities" service. (Both IndieGoGo and RocketHub also release half of their service fee to projects that successfully meet their funding goals as an added incentive.)
DISCUSSION: BITCOIN
• An alternative, de-centralised currency
• What is Bitcoin?
https://bitcoin.org/en/
DISCUSSION: BITCOIN
• Untraceable: Privacy and anonymity in transactions (escape targeting by marketing and advertising)
• Cash-like transactions
• No international transactions fees
• Finite amount so no inflation
• Untraceable: Illegal activity
(Silk Road1)
• Easy to lose
• Not (yet) very widespread
so limits useability
• Volatile
1 More on Silk Road case:
http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/14/technol
ogy/security/silk-road-bitcoin/
• Advantages • Risks
CASE STUDY
• Questions re: topics
• Prepare a mini pitch for next week’s brainstorming
tutorial
REMINDERS
• Blog post #3 due Sunday March 30, 11.59pm
– On Week 4 readings, lecture, today’s tute.
• Week 4 Required Readings:
– Zittrain, Jonathan. 2009. Minds for Sale (video, 1hr
16mins). 16 November. Available at:
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/interactive/events/2009/11/ber
kwest
– Fuchs, Christian. 2014. “The Power and Political Economy
of Social Media.” In Social Media: An Introduction, 97 –
125. London: Sage Publications.
• COMMENTS on this week’s posts!
• Email me case study topic if you haven’t yet done so.
REMINDERS
• Readings for next week:
– Shefrin, Elana. 2004. “Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and
Participatory Fandom: Mapping New Congruencies
Between the Internet and Media Entertainment Culture.”
Critical Studies in Media Communication 21 (3): 261-281.
– Burgess, Jean and Joshua Green. 2009. “You Tube and
the Mainstream Media.” In YouTube: Online Video and
Participatory Culture edited by Jean Burgess, Joshua
Green and Henry Jenkins, 15-37. Cambridge, MA: Polity
Press
PULSE SURVEY
Questions?