Working for Whuffie

Per CR suggestion… Research component is important to really own the work that I’m doing. It’s the ‘next’ step of contributing original research. Originally I thought I would bring together the various thoughts out there into one place (really an extended lit review), followed by an anecdotal survey of select web communities to support the conclusions I draw from my lit review. Now, instead, I have built in time at the end of November to design an original research project based on my first draft of the lit review. This will also spur a redraft of the outline.

I appreciate the strategy that Colin employed in his thesis. He took his thesis and thesis questions and applied them directly to CCTV. Within CCTV he had a historical perspective, examples of the current struggles and choices faced by cable access, and a built-in focus group to tap.

Narrowing a project is always the most difficult. My guess is that I’m going to have to choose a specific internet community (or communities) to bring scope and focus to my research project.

A reminder of the questions I’m considering:

For a long time I’ve questioned the affects this volunteer labor may have on the economy. My approach isn’t so much examining our “bottom-line” economy (we know the media giants are losing their shirts, and their minds), but more the affect on the philosophy of our economy.

• Are we shifting to a more socialized (some argue Communist) economy as the “greater good” efforts of the Whuffie-getters take hold?

• Will the “democratizing” forces of the internet “lift millions of people out of poverty” as promised (Tapscott, 17)?

• If so, how does that upset the distribution of wealth, and what does that mean for our capitalist economy?

It seems the corporations are catching on, and already there are efforts underfoot to adapt ad adopt the lessons of participatory culture in America’s corporate environments.

• Will such efforts ultimately remove the gains of the “democratizing” force by empowering the corporate powers-that-be to beat us at our own game by using our tools?

• Ultimately can a democratized web and capitalist economy co-exist?

Already I’m realizing that these may not be questions that can be answered by studying some community.

How, exactly, does one test the presence of a philosophical shift?

I don’t think presence is quite the word I want. A shift doesn’t just exist, it’s something in motion. What is the word to capture that essence? Something that conveys it is subtle, and powerful, only maybe needs to be feared, and only maybe ought to be embraced…

As I’ve noted previously, my timeline is a little longer than most for the writing portion of my thesis. This is largely because I need to invest heavy amounts of time in writing, seeking and incorporating revision suggestions, and implementing changes proposed by my thesis committee. Writing is a momentous task for me, so doing those things will take an extraordinary time, which I make up for by being a super-fast reader and information assimilator. (Not a word, I don’t care, I’m sure you know what I mean.)

Per HYL suggestion, I’m going to try to move up the spring dates to allow more time for the final draft version. I think originally I was thinking that I’d have a “solid” set of chapters by then, and I’d just be doing tweaking. However (and – duh!) the bigger picture is the flow through the chapters. I need more time in case I see inconsitencies, or need to change my approach to a particular theme.

Per CR suggestion… Research component is important to really own the work that I’m doing. It’s the ‘next’ step of contributing original research. Originally I thought I would bring together the various thoughts out there into one place (really an extended lit review), followed by an anecdotal survey of select web communities to support the conclusions I draw from my lit review. Now, instead, I have built in time at the end of November to design an original research project based on my first draft of the lit review. This will also spur a redraft of the outline.

That’s a busy week, I will also incorporate TT suggestions and revisions that come my way, plus revise the outline after I’ve put together the research project. Oh, and bake a pie or two for T-Day.

Nov 30th the plan is to submit Chap 1 (1st draft), a revised outline, and comprehensive preliminary research project thoughts.

Soon, probably at the end of this week, I’ll revise the time line for dates after Dec. There is still an outline all the way through May, but I need to push a few things back and forward to make space for the research project.

Workplan (“w/o” is “week of”)

Through Oct 30, Reading list, notes, outline drafts

w/o Oct 26 Draft Outline

Oct 30 Outline to TT

Oct 31 Due: Outline

w/o Nov 2 Begin Chap 1 Draft 1

Goal: 2 pages/day

w/o Nov 9 Continue Chap 1 Draft 1

Goal: 2 pages/day

w/o Nov 16 Revisions Chap 1 Draft 1, Outline

Nov 19 Chap 1 Draft 1 to TT

Nov 20/21 Revise/Update Outline based on 1st Chapter

w/o Nov 23 Revisions Chap 1 Draft 1, Revise Outline

Incorporate TT Suggestions

Design Research compenent

Revise Outline to incorporate Research Piece

w/o Nov 30 Begin Chap 2 Draft 1

Nov 30

Due: Chap 1 Draft, Revised Outline

Dec 5 CM: Revisions to Chap 1 Draft

(Dear WordPress Template – a link is basic html, what’s wrong with you!! Dear Guest, Please pardon such issues while I search for time to search for a replacement for my nifty template here…)

With lots of help from Eric Gordon (http://placeofsocialmedia.com/blog), who has agreed to be my Chair, I’ve been able to articulate some of the questions motivating my inquiry and shaping my efforts at this stage of the game. I’ve put together a suggested schedule, workplan, and preliminary reading list… all to be posted to the wiki, once I finally have that wrangled.

The working title for my thesis is “She Works Hard for the Whuffie: Labor in the Age of Peer Production.” “Whuffie” is internet “street cred,” good Whuffie means a good reputation, which can be earned through considerable participation online, usually in efforts that are entirely volunteer.

For a long time I’ve questioned the affects this volunteer labor may have on the economy. My approach isn’t so much examining our “bottom-line” economy (we know the media giants are losing their shirts, and their minds), but more the affect on the philosophy of our economy. Are we shifting to a more socialized (some argue Communist) economy as the “greater good” efforts of the Whuffie-getters take hold? Will the “democratizing” forces of the internet “lift millions of people out of poverty” as promised (Tapscott, 17)? If so, how does that upset the distribution of wealth, and what does that mean for our capitalist economy?

It seems the corporations are catching on, and already there are efforts underfoot to adapt ad adopt the lessons of participatory culture in America’s corporate environments. Will such efforts ultimately remove the gains of the “democratizing” force by empowering the corporate powers-that-be to beat us at our own game by using our tools? Ultimately can a democratized web and capitalist economy co-exist?

My mind is swirling with ideas about this. In a way it feels a little like an out of control indulgence, finally pouring into this topic and exploring it this way. Almost like I’m just letting myself eat all the chocolate ice cream I want. I really am a helpless nerd. 😉

Tapscott, Don, and Anthony D. Williams. Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. Ottawa: Portfolio Hardcover, 2006.

Just when I get the wiki right (sort of) I realize that my template here isn’t processing the link embeds correctly, and the urls are showing up instead of the links. And the About page is coded as a blog, but you can’t blog to that page, so “Recent Posts” is always just the last post! Yikes.

AND, on the wiki. I can create new pages the old wiki-fashioned way, but if you try to navigate to them by clicking on them (as opposed to typing in the “php” url), you end up back at the home page. As a result:

1. The schedule and bibliography are on the home page of the wiki right now.

2. The links above (bib, schedule, wiki) all link to that one home page.

I have theories on how to fix it all, but for now I’d like to put the programming aside and get to reading.thinking/writing!!

Wow, pretty damned hard to get WordPress to accept a “Page” that goes to a whole new world. Err, “www” address.

After a lot of research I finally found the http://codex.wordpress.org/FAQ_Advanced_Topics“>information to make it happen. Using a plugin called Redirectify I created a page with a “Custom Field,” key “redirect,” and the url of my http://www.workingforwhuffie.com“>wiki in the value field. Bluehost made installing the wiki itself so easy that I doubted the process, but all was a success in the end, and the wiki is in place.

Welcome to WordPress. This is WordPress’ idea of a brilliant sample post.

IMAO, it’s not too brilliant.

It’s a title possibility for my thesis. Maybe I’ll change my mind. If I do I’ll simply come back and delete the entry altogether. How very 1984.

Thankfully the title, according to the Emerson College Department Handbook for the Master of Arts in Media Arts Program, 2004-2005 (my official catalog year), is open for redevelopment during the writing of my thesis.

I have decided that for my thesis I absolutely want to look at the economics of peer production. Almost everyone who knows me has heard my tirade on Amazon reviews (Short Version: On the whole, reviews increase sales (otherwise Amazon wouldn’t allow the system) people who take the time to write reviews are doing free promotions for Amazon products “to help educate others,” while increasing Amazon’s bottom line without compensation, etc…). Peer review systems, contests with consumer winning prizes for designing ad campaigns, corporate-sponsored play… these are topics that I’d wondered about in the abstract for but started being able to articulate after reading a <a href=”http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/people_pr.html“>Wired article</a> by Long Tail author and longtime Wired editor, Chris Anderson, who writes:

<blockquote>Today’s peer-production machine runs in a mostly nonmonetary economy. The currency is reputation, expression, karma, “wuffie [sic*],” or simply whim.</blockquote>

On the whole, the article presents a far more idealistic view of peer production than I generally embrace. His line “It’s a mistake to equate peer production with anticapitalism,” left me with a riddle to solve. I’ve been in the process of temporarily moving out of my house (long story, happy ending) and, as I was packing and unpacking my library I took inventory of the number of books I’ve accumulated trying to answer this question, ‘with what, then, should I be equating peer production?’ (One hopes the answer will be less grammatically awkward than the question.) Anderson writes, “This isn’t amateurs versus professionals; it’s each benefiting the other,” but I have a hard time swallowing such a Utopian notion.

So, that’s what I’d like to drown in, I mean, dive into, in the next 9 months. The water is a choppy as it ever is with me, but it’s my last two semesters at Emerson. To keep with an already painful metaphor, it’s time to sink or swim. I invite anyone out there who has similar questions, or insights they’d like to share… or even just a good cookie recipe, to jump on in. I swear, the water’s fine. Join the Coast Guard and help me be the best that I can be! (As if the metaphor wasn’t bad enough, now I’ve gone and mixed it. ::sigh::)

(ok, ok, that was more like 6 hours than 15 minutes of writing. 15 is a minimum, 24 the max in any given day. Deal?)

• The spelling of the word has it’s own “the day Aubree edited Wikipedia” story that ends in my <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wuffie&diff=74903952&oldid=74903689“>wuffie</a> entry being <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wuffie&action=history“>redirected</a> to the “h”-bearing “<a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuffie“>whuffie</a>”.