The Free Encyclopaedia that Anyone can Edit: The Shifting Values of Wikipedia Editors

Osman, Kim

doi:10.3384/cu.2000.1525.146593

Cited by 9 publications

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“…First of all, there seems to exist, as Osman (2014) rightly points out, a notable share of Wikipedians in favour of paid editing within the scheme of commons-based peer production. The problem with Osman's analysis is that he regards this as a new situation, implying that Wikipedia was less commercially dependent before.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the case of Wiki-PR and the consequential policy proposals have been previously studied by Kim Osman (2014), who concluded that the commonplace image of Wikipedia as an example of the potential of Internet to support open, free and non-commercial cooperation, is often confused with how reality looks like within its peer production. We agree with Osman that the romanticized imagery of digitalism is a theoretical dead end, but in contrast to his critique's assumptions, we contend that it was not better before.…”

Section: Wiki-pr and The Disgrace Of Paid Editingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In our understanding, these tensions reveal and highlight some of the highly important but mostly unspoken political positions within the project. The disputed cases of paid editing and paid advocacy can be seen to pose risks to the encyclopaedic ideals (Osman 2014) but also, perhaps more unexpectedly, to introduce new emancipatory advantages (Lund 2015a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Roos¹,

Kostakis²,

Giotitsas³

2016

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Today, two great signs of change are occurring. On the one hand, the capitalist world economy is putting tremendous pressure on the earth's biosphere and bringing an onslaught of destruction to immediate environments and vulnerable people worldwide. On the other hand, the rise of new and progressive social-economic foundations is the result of an unprecedented increase of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Therefore it is arguably more crucial than ever to understand how social, economic and ecological foundations of the internet and ICT infrastructures are interwoven. What are we-as scholars, activists and citizens-to make of ICTs that seem to emerge from an economic and social system based upon ecological destruction and social oppression, while at the same time engaging millions of people in the proliferation of information, knowledge and active democratic collaboration? This special issue investigates how we can begin to understand this problem, and how we can hope to balance the perils and promises of ICTs in order to make way for a just and sustainable paradigm.Keywords: Commons based peer production, peer-to-peer, political ecology, ICTs, materiality, immateriality, transition, sustainability, digital commons.Recent studies by Christian Fuchs have examined the complex web of production relations and the new division of digital labour that makes possible the vast and cheap ICT infrastructure as we know it (Fuchs 2013;. The analysis partly reveals that ICT products and infrastructure embody slave-like conditions that perpetually force mine and assembly workers into positions of dependency. Expanding this argument, the WWF has reported (Reed and Miranda 2007) that mining in the Congo basin poses considerable threats to the local environment in the form of pollution, loss of biodiversity, and an increased presence of businessas-usual made possible by roads and railways. This research highlights that ICTs are inherently material, as opposed to purely cognitive or code based, because the ICT infrastructure under the given economic structure embodies slave-like working conditions, various class relations and undesirable ecological consequences (see also Humphrey 2001). Thus, the position that views the emerging digital economy as purely immaterial is challenged.At the same time, the emerging digital commons provide a new and promising platform for social developments, arguably enabled by the progressive dynamics of ICT development. These are predominantly manifested within commons-based peer production, i.e., a new mode of collaborative, social production ; and grassroots desktop manufacturing or community-driven makerspaces, i.e. forms of bottom-up, distributed manufacturing. The most well-known examples of commons-based peer production are the free/open source software projects and the free encyclopaedia Wikipedia. While these novel forms of social organisation are immanent in capitalism, they also present the potential to challenge the dominant capitalist system of production and ev...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Wiki-pr and The Disgrace Of Paid Editingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Roos¹,

Kostakis²,

Giotitsas³

2016

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“…Free and unpaid labour is nothing new in the media industries; in fact, it is an intrinsic part of how the media industries are organized, in both traditional media (television, print, film) and new media industries (social network media, wikis) (Lindgren 2014, Osman 2014. Research and theoretical debate on this kind of free labour in the media industries has been lively during the last decade (Banks & Deuze 2009, Banks & Humphreys 2008, Fuchs 2014, Gill & Pratt 2008, Hesmondhalgh 2010.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Volunteering as Media Work: The Case of the Eurovision Song Contest

Stiernstedt

Golovko²

2019

Cult. Unbound

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This article explores volunteering in relation to the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), which took place in Stockholm in 2016 and in Kyiv in 2017, with the aim of shedding light on volunteering as a form of "media work". Following from this, the article aims to problematize the theoretical concept of free labour and analyse the symbolic exchanges and currencies involved in employing a "free" labour force. Through interviews with volunteers, this article explores what volunteers at huge media events do, how their work is organized, and what motivates them. The empirical basis for this article is an interview study with volunteers and volunteer organizers of the ESC in Stockholm (May 2016) and in Kyiv (May 2017), complemented with a document analysis of volunteer guidebooks and organizational reports. The article shows that eventfulness is an essential part of what volunteer labour brings to an event such as the ESC. It is also a key element in the production of economic value: eventfulness is a currency that expresses the value of the event itself and is a key feature of place branding. Furthermore, eventfulnessalong with the feeling of being a part of an event, of something bigger, as it unfolds in time-is a key feature of the motivation for the volunteers who contribute with unpaid labour. As such, eventfulness can also be understood as a form of currency or symbolic capital that forms the main remuneration or "wage" earned by volunteers at an event such as the ESC.

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“…Volunteering can be a form of unpaid labour, when performed with or in relation to commercial interests; with this concept as a basis, the purpose of this article is to problematize the concept of free labour and highlight the symbolic exchanges and currencies involved in this form of media work. Free and unpaid labour is nothing new in the media industries; in fact, it is an intrinsic part of how the media industries are organized, in both traditional media (television, print, film) and new media industries (social network media, wikis) (Lindgren 2014, Osman 2014. Research and theoretical debate on this kind of free labour in the media industries has been lively during the last decade (Banks & Deuze 2009, Banks & Humphreys 2008, Fuchs 2014, Gill & Pratt 2008, Hesmondhalgh 2010.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Untitled

2019

Cult. Unbound

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Sweden is often described as a country where secularization has come comparatively far. At the same time, state and church have remained relatively close, especially before the enactment of the decisions of increased separation of church and state in 2000. Sweden is also a country where the built heritage of the established church enjoys a strong legal protection. When relations between the state and the established church were reformed in 2000, this protection was left in place. This article offers an analysis of the significance ascribed to ecclesiastical heritage in the form of Church of Sweden heritage churches in government policy, focusing on the process leading up to the separation of church and state in year 2000. Using Mircea Eliade's understanding of the sacred and the profane as a starting point for my analysis, I contextualize the significance of heritage churches is in the wider context of a post-Christian, and more specifically post-Lutheran, secularized society. I suggest that the ongoing heritagization of Church of Sweden's church buildings could be seen as a process where they are decontextualized from the denominationally-specific religiosity of the Church of Sweden, but rather than being re-contextualized only as secular heritage, they could be more clearly understood as becoming the sacred places, and objects, of a post-Lutheran civil religion and generalized religiosity, i.e. not simply a disenchantment, but also a re-enchantment. This could be understood as a continuation of traditions of approaching memory, and the sacred, developed in a society characterized by the near hegemony of the established church in the religious sphere, but also in partially counter-clerical movements, such as the Romantic movement.

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The Free Encyclopaedia that Anyone can Edit: The Shifting Values of Wikipedia Editors

Cited by 9 publications

References 10 publications

Download the Entire Special Section Here

Download the Entire Special Section Here

Volunteering as Media Work: The Case of the Eurovision Song Contest

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