Gedankenstrich.org

In der Zeitschrift Information Research ist eine Rezension zu unserem Buch »Collectivity and Power on the Internet« erschienen:

The whole book is devoted to the investigation of collective social actors on the internet, their rise, specific features, means of acquiring and losing power on the internet, their role online and technology role in their activities, and the basis of continuing survival. 

 […] Chapter 2 provides a basic typology of social actors involved in collective actions on the Internet, starting with spontaneously emerging short-term swarms or flash-crowds to institutionalized production-oriented communities. […] Chapter three critically examines the social movements and changes that the use of digital technology has brought to their activities.[…] Social media do not replace mass media or conventional forms of protest, but enhance the possibilities of networking and feedback beyond the scope of social movement or protest event.

[…] I have found very interesting the next chapter on open source communities, which exposes the loss of their disruptive edge and the new role in the strategy of innovation as incubators of new solutions. […] I liked the classification of the open sourse software projects in relation to two axes of corporate leverage and levels of coordination that helps understanding the variety of projects and initiatives in this field. The most impressive part […] is the discussion of the present state of the open source initiatives and the future potential of openness discourses for the economic and political fields.

The final chapter on the competition and power of the main Internet companies was both most interesting and probably least new to me. I appreciated the logic and the depth of the arguments that were employed to reveal the sources of power, the nature of competition, and the strategies leading to success of the five dominant internet companies. […]