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This paper revisits and builds upon a prominent theme in First Monday's 2008 "Critical perspectives on Web 2.0" special issue: exploration and critique of the claim that Web 2.0 "... provides novel opportunities for the articulation of individual and collective social power by enhancing participation in media production and cultural expression" (Zimmer, 2008). This article refreshes the critique by examining how impediments to users' technical knowledge about how Web 2.0 platforms function affect user power.
After reviewing how the scholarly literature on Web 2.0 accounts for the user knowledge/user power connection, this paper suggests Braman's (2006) concept of "informational power" as a useful heuristic for exploring how access to information about how Web 2.0 platforms function operates as a "genetic" facet of user power. Then, using Braman's framework, the article reviews two cases of struggle over informational power in regards to the Twitter platform: controversy over the Library of Congress Twitter archive and Occupy Wall Street protesters inaccurately accusing Twitter of censorship because of a misunderstanding about "Trending Topics." Through the application of Braman's framework to these cases, it becomes clear how users' prospects for developing technical knowledge about the platforms shape the limits and horizons of individual and collective power.
Literature review: Dis/empowerment
User knowledge of information flow in Web 2.0 as informational power
Applying the informational power framework
In 2004, Tim O'Reilly began promoting the term "Web 2.0" to describe a new generation of Web-based technologies. He defined Web 2.0 as:
... the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an 'architecture of participation,' and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences. (O'Reilly, 2005)
Since O'Reilly's definition and the subsequent proliferation of Web 2.0 services, there has been ongoing discussion about the impact of this "architecture of participation" on individual and collective social power.
Some have argued Web 2.0 technologies enhance user power. For example, Andersen (2007) argues that within Web 2.0 environments, users move from being "passive" consumers of content to having capabilities for "participatory" and "active" engagement [1]. Through Web 2.0, users have the potential to gain or maintain cultural and social capital (Ellison, et al., 2007); undermine the authority of traditional media hierarchies and engage in participatory culture (Jenkins and Deuze, 2008); construct new identities, meet friends and colleagues, and engage with strangers (Albrechtslund, 2008); and even become more active participants in governance (Shirky, 2011). Web 2.0 technologies have been hailed as engendering group coordination and action (Shirky, 2010; Tapscott and Williams, 2008), which, in turn, can facilitate users becoming part of what Castells (2009) refers to as networked counter-power. Neologisms such as "produser" (Bruns, 2008a) and "prosumer" [2] (Quan-Haase and Young, 2010; Ritzer and Jurgenson, 2010) have been used to demarcate the shift in user capabilities.
Often, user empowerment narratives rest on O'Reilly's logic that Web 2.0 technologies inherently serve as "architectures of participation." However, these perspectives frequently conflate participation with empowerment. By highlighting the sometimes worrisome political-economic and ideological foundations of Web 2.0 technologies, many have critiqued these optimistic narratives. For example, authors in First Monday's 2008 "Critical perspectives on Web 2.0" special issue such as Jarrett (2008), Petersen (2008), and Scholz (2008), challenged the narrative of unbridled user empowerment vis-à-vis ideological and political-economic critique. They offered counters to the claim that Web 2.0 "... provides novel opportunities for the articulation of individual and collective social power by enhancing participation in media production and cultural expression" (Zimmer, 2008). More recent work by Andrejevic (2009), Cohen (2008), Fenton and Barassi (2011), Fuchs (2014, 2011), Gehl (2011), Sandoval (2012), and van Dijck (2013, 2012, 2009) shows how user empowerment narratives neglect how growth in user power is proportionally less than the growth of power of other institutional actors; how users are left with little true choice or control regarding how information about them is collected and shared; how user labor is commoditized; and, how users are alienated from the information they produce.
Despite 10 years of ongoing back and forth about whether Web 2.0 empowers or disempowers, there remain outstanding gaps in the conversation. Notably, this debate often only tacitly addresses the connection between user knowledge of Web 2.0 technologies — how data, algorithms, protocols, defaults, policies, platform business practices, and information flows are implemented and arranged — and user power. This misses the important role understandings of technology and its antecedents play in shaping users' relative power.
This paper suggests reframing the current approach to user power by leveraging Braman's (2006) "informational power" framework. Braman's framework facilitates identifying how users' access to technical knowledge of Web 2.0 platforms operates as a genetic factor in their expressions of power. This article then illustrates two cases of struggles over to informational power in the context of Twitter: controversy over the Library of Congress Twitter archive and Occupy Wall Street protesters inaccurately accusing Twitter of censorship because of a misunderstanding about "Trending Topics." Through the application of Braman's framework to these cases, it becomes clear how impediments to users developing knowledge about this platform shape the limits and horizons of individual and collective power.
Literature review: Dis/empowerment
Contextualizing the literature
Revisiting "Web 2.0" and the literature about Web 2.0 a decade later makes for somewhat of a challenge. The phrase "Web 2.0" has seemed to have fallen out of favor and some academics reflect on the early optimistic responses to Web 2.0 as, perhaps, joyful naivety. In the contemporary academic literature, there is greater emphasis on that booming outgrowth of Web 2.0 technologies: social media sites. Yet, revisiting the early promises of Web 2.0 alongside the more recent scholarship on social media sites reveals the evolution (perhaps, dawning disappointment) as these so-called technologies of empowerment slowly began to be realized as a data-mined, mobile, always-on, surveillant social media [3]. When viewed this way, the debate over dis/empowerment appears as an evolution in understanding participatory emancipation as empowerment to the (re)imposition of labor alienation, exploitation, and ultimately domination as disempowerment. However, such a narrative paints an incomplete picture, removing from consideration how users' access to knowledge about how Web 2.0 technologies function impacts users beyond the participation/exploitation storyline.
Locating user knowledge in early Web 2.0 empowerment literature
O'Reilly's Web 2.0
In 2007, O'Reilly expanded his previous definition of Web 2.0, citing additional undergirding principles such as: the Web as platform, the harnessing of collective intelligence and taking advantage of the wisdom of the crowd, the importance of data (calling it the next "Intel inside"), and the end of the software release cycle, among others. In detailing these principles, O'Reilly paints an optimistic view of what Web 2.0 can enable. However, O'Reilly ignores the role user knowledge plays in making the realization of the principles possible. In doing so, O'Reilly's visioning glosses over the contingent nature of the emancipatory potential of Web 2.0.
Reflecting on O'Reilly's claims in light of the 2016 technological milieu surfaces some of these shortcomings. For example, in his discussion of how Web 2.0 technologies can help harness collective intelligence, O'Reilly states:
Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia based on the unlikely notion that an entry can be added by any Web user, and edited by any other, is a radical experiment in trust, applying Eric Raymond's dictum (originally coined in the context of open source software) that "with enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow," to content creation. Wikipedia is already in the top 100 Web sites, and many think it will be in the top ten before long. This is a profound change in the dynamics of content creation! [4]
Today, the claim that Wikipedia can truly be added to by any Web user — and is therefore a shining example of the promise of Web 2.0's ability to harness collective wisdom — has fallen short. Many have pointed out Wikipedia has only a small number of elite editors who contribute a significant amount of content to the platform (Anderson, 2012; Kittur, et al., 2007; Ortega, et al., 2008); that over 90 percent of Wikipedia's editors are male (Khanna, 2012); that the global north has far greater representation on Wikipedia than the global south (in addition to many other discrepancies in the equality of representation in content [Simonite, 2013]); and that the number of active editors has been in decline since 2007 (Simonite, 2013). In fact, getting new Wikipedia users to contribute has been a significant challenge for the platform. Doing so requires educating them on the many policies of the platform in addition to training them on how the technical interface works. While Wikipedia has made several attempts to lower the knowledge barrier for new users, these attempts have been met with setbacks and failures (Simonite, 2013). In their study of the role of people's background attributes and Internet skills in participation on Wikipedia, Hargittai and Shaw (2015) find skills are "an extraordinarily robust predictor of contributing to Wikipedia and also help explain a key dimension of the gender gap among Wikipedia editors." [5]
O'Reilly also ignores many of the potential consequences of some of Web 2.0's principles for users' abilities to develop technical understandings of these platforms. For example, as part of his discussion regarding the end of the software release cycle, O'Reilly argues platforms such as Google Mail, Flickr, and others, can now essentially stay in perpetual beta, undergoing continuous tweaking, changing, and updating to provide new functionalities. However, in this paradigm, users may be less aware of when changes to a Web site or service occur (as users do not have to install a "new release"). Further, they may be less aware of knowing what has changed when updates occur. These changes contribute to a situation where "platforms" are constantly shifting under users' feet. This can lead to problems for users and, depending on the change, has the potential to undermine users' earlier decisions. For example, some users were upset when, in 2015, Facebook made all public posts searchable (Bhutia, 2015). Previously, those posts were still "public," but did not have the same level of discoverability. Users may have made decisions about posting publicly based on their understanding of the platform. Users today may still be making decisions to post publicly based on inaccurate and out-of-date understandings of the platform's information flows and the discoverability of content. The end of the product rollout means a higher demand on users' cognitive abilities to continuously parse opaque interfaces and detect change.
Finally, in discussing how the Web 2.0 paradigm shifts software above the level of a single device, O'Reilly argues these technologies "leverage the power of the Web platform, making it a seamless, almost invisible part of their infrastructure" [6]. While O'Reilly celebrates the invisibility of infrastructure, it is exactly this invisibility that carries consequences for users' abilities to develop technical knowledge.
In light of changes to the traditional production/consumption model engendered by Web 2.0 technologies, Bruns (2008a, 2008b, 2007, 2006) introduces the term "produsage" to describe "the collaborative, iterative, and user-led production of content by participants in hybrid user producer, or produser role" [7]. In describing the kinds of education members of society will need to be effective produsers, Bruns identifies four target capacities: creative, collaborative, communicative, and critical. He acknowledges the need for education to "address and problematize the processes and practice of user-led content creation itself, in order to help participants develop a more informed, self-reflexive, and critical perspective on their own practices as information seekers, users, and providers ... ." [8]. However, in his review of each of the capacities, the purpose of knowledge about these spaces is framed as increasing users' produsive capacities; facilitating co-creation and the ability to work in a group; and fostering users' abilities to make decisions about when, where, and with whom to produse.
Bruns' reasoning about the necessity of critical capacities is that they are needed, "to discern whether a particular piece of information is to be trusted, to look beyond the survey to examine the sources for that information, and the process of its produsage (such as, for example, the edit history of a Wikipedia entry) ... ." [9] However, critically evaluating information on a Wikipedia page also requires users have policy knowledge and technical knowledge of the platform: First knowing every user edit is saved within the edit history, and second, knowing how to pull up the revision history page within the Wikipedia interface, how then to make sense of (often quite long) edit histories and the standards used to convey information about the edits. Hence, the ability to evaluate information critically is highly dependent on understanding the technology itself.
Locating user knowledge in Web 2.0 critique
Many scholars have criticized rosy depictions of Web 2.0 user empowerment as neglecting the technology's exploitative political-economic foundations. For example, Jarrett (2008) argues "Techniques of power which construct and promote this subject position serve to negate the hierarchy of traditional producer/consumer relations. Yet, this strategy can only function in relation to a producer/consumer power relation which remains ... ultimately, unchanged." [10] Critics argue while users may gain access to expanded communication capabilities or the possibility of engaging in "participatory culture" through Web 2.0 platforms, this power is only gained through the imposition of a laborer/owner power dynamic. As van Dijck and Nieborg (2009) put it, while peer-production models appear to be replacing older top-down approaches, these models exist "entirely inside commodity culture." [11]
Despite arguments made by scholars such as Jenkins and Deuze (2008) that user empowerment undermines the authority of traditional media hierarchies, users rarely have any measure of control over the information flows within these spaces and generally do not share in any of the profit extracted from their labor (Terranova, 2004, 2000). Ritzer and Jurgenson (2010) argue that the relationship between user and Web 2.0 technologies represents a kind of "prosumer capitalism" in which "control and exploitation take on a different character than in the other forms of capitalism ... there is a trend toward unpaid rather than paid labor and toward offering products at no cost." [12]
Scholars hailing from critical Marxist traditions argue that this is not inherently a new phenomenon, but is essentially old wine in a "2.0" bottle. They argue the problem stems from age-old alienation and the exploitation of the laborer: the laboring class does not have power or control over the means of production (Petersen, 2008) and is exploited so the capitalist can gain surplus value (Fuchs, 2014, 2011). The fact users do not own or control the means of production of most Web 2.0 platforms means they have little influence over what happens to the information they produce. In this disempowerment discourse, power relations between users and Web 2.0 technologies seem built on a foundation of labor alienation, exploitation, and ultimately domination (Cohen, 2008; Coté and Pybus, 2007; Fuchs, 2011, 2008; Petersen, 2008).
Several authors suggest the exploitative nature of the relationship between user/Web 2.0 purveyor is furthered by impediments to the construction of user knowledge. Social media platforms in particular exacerbate exploitation because they depend so heavily on the surveillance of users in combination with selling user data. Critical accounts of many popular social media platforms reveal how user knowledge can be shaped and influenced by technological design and technological discourse.
Code politics and algorithms
Langlois, et al. (2009) argue a common characteristic of commercial Web 2.0 platforms is that the ways user generated content are commodified are often kept invisible to users, specifically through the technical structuring and design of the sites. Referring to this as "code politics," the authors state many Web 2.0 purveyors make strategic design decisions to reduce user resistance, purposefully hiding how information flows through these systems and subsequently becomes commodified. To illustrate their argument, Langlois, et al. discuss Facebook's Beacon program, a controversial system that Facebook implemented that facilitated greater commodification of user generated information. The authors argue that Beacon became controversial not simply because it involved the commodification of user generated information, but because it became visible and known to users. Suddenly, through their use of the site, users were confronted with how the information they generated flowed through Facebook's platform to third parties and vice versa. Users petitioned Facebook for an immediate halt to Beacon and the program eventually became the basis of a lawsuit brought by a small number of users. Despite Facebook eventually putting a stop to that particular program, the "processes of commercialization ... are still taking place on the Facebook platform ... these processes, however, increasingly take place at the back-end level and because they are invisible to users, they meet with less resistance" [13]. In engaging in "code politics," platform purveyors can inhibit the development of users' knowledge in order to culture particular information production and consumption practices among users. As a result, the code politics of a platform can affect user knowledge, potentially reducing "resistance" from users.
Langlois, et al.'s example highlights some of the tensions between the development of user knowledge about how Web 2.0 technologies function and their commercial success. Individuals make use decisions based on their understandings of the platform, and it is often in the economic interest of these companies to promote forms of user knowledge that are conducive to the users participating slash laboring. While user resistance may not result in technological change often, non-use is a pressing and ongoing concern for the businesses that run many of today's social media sites (Shah, 2016). As a result, platform purveyors have strong economic incentives for structuring their material technologies in ways that promote only certain kinds of understanding about these platforms.
Gillespie's (2014, 2010) work on algorithms and platforms expands beyond the code politics argument. In his analysis of the increasingly important role algorithms play in selecting what information to show users, he demonstrates how previous modes of scholarly thinking fail to fully account for the reality of invisible change taking place within many of these platforms. While algorithms are not strictly limited to Web 2.0 technologies and social media platforms, their design and implementation in these spaces fits into the ongoing conversation about disempowerment. Gillespie argues that while algorithms may be "black boxed" (Pinch and Bijker, 1984) by designers, the black box metaphor, as traditionally used within the science and technology studies literature, falls short in this space by failing to adequately capture the reality of how algorithms are both obscured and continuously modified. To integrate O'Reilly's vision of Web 2.0 with Gillespie's observations, the end of the software release cycle means that algorithms can be "easily, instantly, radically, and invisibly changed" [14]; tweaked endlessly without the changes being observable to users.
Technological discourse
The work of van Dijck and Nieborg (2009) suggests users' difficulty in developing knowledge about information flows on Web 2.0 platforms may be perpetuated not only by the structuring/code politics of a site, but also by the technological discourse surrounding it. In analyzing a number of Web 2.0 business manifestos, the two observe:
Web 2.0 manifestos ... typically do not provide any technological details about how various sites render profitable business models ... they focus on the emancipation of consumers into users and co-creators, rather than on the technical details concerning how these sites turn a profit. [15]
Gillespie (2010) similarly argues, "Online content providers such as YouTube are carefully positioning themselves to users ... making strategic claims as to what they do and do not do, and how their place in the information landscape should be understood" [16]. The language a Web 2.0 purveyor chooses to describe itself to users is critically important as a factor facilitating users' knowledge of a platform. As Gillespie (2010) notes, even the decisions to use the phrase "platform" is a strategic choice and is rife with implications for the way these technologies are understood.
Privacy policies and governing documents are another way that Web sites communicate how these platforms work and what happens to information collected from users. According to Jensen and Potts (2004), privacy policies "are meant to inform consumers about business and privacy practices and serve as a basis for decision making for consumers" [17]. However, like the material technologies, these documents are often opaque. Cranor (2003) argues "read-ability experts have found that comprehending privacy policies typically requires college-level reading skills" [18] and Fernback and Papacharissi (2007) suggests while the documents may describe the general kinds of information a company collects, the language is often purposefully broad or vague.
While Jensen and Potts (2004) suggest that privacy policies are meant to inform consumers about what businesses collect and do with individuals' information, Fernback and Papacharissi (2007) instead argue, "Privacy statements, crafted by staff attorneys, are written to coincide with business models so that firms may maximize the ability to profit from information that they capture" [19]. Rather than being technological discourse designed for benefit of users, these documents are constructed so in the event of a complaint the company can be absolved of legal responsibility.
Taken together with the work on code-politics and ever-changing algorithms, a rather bleak picture of the transparency of Web 2.0 technologies emerges. When the technical details of these spaces are not perceivable through the structure of the sites and are not easily discoverable through the technological discourse around these sites, users are put at a significant disadvantage in their abilities to build knowledge of how these systems function. This paper next argues, as a result, users are put at a de facto disadvantage in their ability to develop power.
Alternative reasons why knowledge of how Web 2.0 sites work is important for users
This review of the Web 2.0 dis/empowerment literature has surfaced several strains of thought as to why there may be cause for concern about user knowledge. First, user knowledge is a concern if it inhibits users from participating/produsing within the platforms, or if users apply incomplete or inaccurate knowledge as part of their technology use and produse incorrectly. User knowledge may also be a concern as barriers to its development further a situation where users are alienated from the information they create and are left with little recourse. Importantly, and of particular focus for the remainder of this article, impediments to the development of user-knowledge inhibit the possibility of informed choice and the ability to participate in the larger social systems these platforms exist within. This can include (but is by no means limited to): the ability to participate in broader social conversations and democratic processes regarding the governance of these spaces; the ability to participate in conversations about Web 2.0 platforms outside of the Web 2.0 platforms themselves; in understanding information from Web 2.0 platforms when it is encountered outside of the Web 2.0 platform (such as when a news organization talks about a "Trending Topic"); and, the ability to make informed decisions about adoption/non-adoption and use/non-use.
Regardless of which consequence is most compelling, a lack of information regarding how these technologies function is a problem for users. Not only do users often have incomplete, inaccurate, or otherwise incorrect understandings of information flows in Web 2.0 spaces [20], but their development of more robust understanding can be hindered by the sites' structures, code politics, and algorithmic transparency, and by the discourse surrounding them. This article now turns to argue that by adopting a different view of user power, one that explicitly accounts for the consideration of access to information about how Web 2.0 technologies work as part of understandings of power, we can better trace how these impediments create horizons and limits for individual and collective power in Web 2.0.
User knowledge of information flow in Web 2.0 as informational power
Authors such as Weber (2009), French and Raven (1959), Lukes (1974), Wrong (1995), Keohane and Nye (1998), and Nye (2008) have approached conceptualizing power relations by classifying what different exercises of power look like, and on what basis those exercises of power are successful. The taxonomies these authors provide focus on how power operates in relation to states, organizations, and institutions [21]. At first glance, this makes them well suited for application to understanding how power operates through centralized platforms, such as Web 2.0 technologies. However, these taxonomies are not built with an explicit consideration for how information technologies affect power relations between organizations and constituents. For that, this article instead turns to the taxonomy of power offered by Braman (2006).
Braman (2006) identifies four forms of power: instrumental power, structural power, symbolic power, and informational power. Instrumental power is power that "shapes human behaviors by manipulating the material world via physical force," structural power "shapes human behaviors by manipulating the world via rules and institutions," symbolic power "shapes human behaviors by manipulating the material, social, and symbolic world via ideas, words, and images," and informational power "shapes human behaviors by manipulating the informational bases of instrumental, structural, and symbolic power" [22]. While each of these forms of power is distinct, Braman observes three important properties of these forms of power. First, they are often co-located. For example, in conflicts among state actors, a state may exercise both kinetic warfare (instrumental power) and propaganda campaigns (symbolic power) simultaneously towards the same end. Second, the forms of power are often layered on and build on each other. For example, "smart weapons" layer informational power on top of conventional instrumental power, as they can target specific individuals based on informational data (such as cellphone locations, GPS information) and can operate more independently of human intervention. Lastly, informational power can often be a precondition for the exercise of other forms of power. For example, a base of informational power can be a precondition for the exercise of instrumental power, such as when having information on how to build a weapon, in the form of blueprints, is a precondition for creating that weapon and subsequently exercising the instrumental power inherent in its use [23]. Thus, Braman refers to informational power as "genetic" [24].
Braman's observations about how informational power acts as a pre-condition in the exercise of other forms of power offers an entry-point for considering how users' access to information about how Web 2.0 technologies function can shape users' later expressions of power. This can occur in two ways. First, access to information about how Web 2.0 technologies function can help individuals build knowledge that helps them realize affordances with that artifact. The realization of affordances can be in produsage, or in other forms of instrumental, structural, or symbolic power, such as protesting user-information commodification through non-use. Second, information about how Web 2.0 technologies function can also enable certain forms of action or exercises of power outside of the material use/non-use of the technology. For example, access to information about how a Web 2.0 technology operates would better enable an individual to petition the system's designers for specific changes to a material artifact (an expression of symbolic power), or to be able to participate in a democratic process regarding the regulation of a technology (an expression of structural power). Thus, access to information about how a Web 2.0 technology works impacts an individual's relative informational power.
To ground the application of Braman's framework in an explicit Web 2.0 example, consider a study by Eslami, et al. (2015) which explored users' perceptions of Facebook's "News Feed" algorithm. The authors found more than half of their participants were totally unaware of the algorithm's presence. After being shown a version of their News Feed unaltered by the algorithm, many respondents indicated they had not realized they did not see all of their friends' activities and were frustrated by this discovery. The authors found "participants often attributed missing stores to their friends' decisions to exclude them rather than to Facebook News Feed algorithm" [25]. Participants who were unaware of the algorithm's presence also reported using News Feed to make inferences about their relationships, "wrongly attributing the composition of their feeds to the habits or intent of their friends and family" [26].
The findings of the Eslami, et al. study help explain why user knowledge, and access to information from which user knowledge about how Web 2.0 platforms work is built, carries implications beyond produsive capacity or political-economic relations. With a broader base of informational power, users are better equipped to make sense not just of the information from these platforms they consume, but to also understand how and why the information is presented to them. It fosters understanding the context of the informational experience and being able to respond to that context; being able to apply the information in new contexts and in other exercises of power. Thus, access to information about how technologies function creates a genetic base for other expressions of power, both in relation to the Web 2.0 environment and outside of it. As the cases discussed next show, informational power — and a lack thereof — helps shape the horizons of individual and collective power.
Applying the informational power framework
Library of Congress archive
In 2010, the Library of Congress announced it had struck a deal with Twitter. In a blog post entitled, "How tweet it is!," the Library declared that, "Every public tweet, ever, since Twitter's inception in March 2006, will be archived digitally at the Library of Congress" [27]. The deal was celebrated by those who saw tweets as "a history of commentary that can provide valuable insights into what's happened and how people have reacted" [28]. With more than (at the time) 100 million users tweeting 55 million times a day, Twitter's archive of user-generated content had seemingly become of important cultural and historical value.
However, some Twitter users were not pleased with the newly instilled sense of permanence tweets were now being given (Zimmer, 2015), with some remarking they had not realized that Twitter had been keeping old tweets. Previously, there had been a technical limitation preventing users from pulling up more than 3,200 old tweets from within the timeline interface (Owens, 2010). Because of this technical structuring, some users may have developed incomplete or inaccurate understandings of what happened to older messages. Further, Baker (2011) describes Twitter's documentation of the existence Library of Congress' archive to users as "not reassuring" [29]. In her 2011 examination of Twitter's terms of service and privacy policies, Baker found not a single mention of this archive, and highlights the fact that Twitter's messaging to users does not actively disclose that this information flow to the Library of Congress exists. She concludes:
Although it is not providing users with incorrect or false information, Twitter is capable of disclosing the Library of Congress Twitter archive in a more straightforward way. Explicit references to the archive institution and the restrictions placed on the archive would educate users and enable them to make more informed decisions about what they post. [30]
It should be noted that Twitter began mentioning the Library of Congress archive in a mid-2012 privacy policy update, but that Twitter essentially went two years before disclosing this information flow as part of their governance documents. In more recent research, Proferes (2015) found just shy of 80 percent of Twitter users that participated in his study did not know about the Library's archiving of tweets.
One might ask: what would a user with a more robustly developed base of informational power in regards to the archive do differently in this situation? They might seek out a service like TweetDeleter [31] or TweetEraser [32] which allows a user to delete tweets based on the year they were written, based on specific content they contain, or based on the age of the tweet. In a 2015 article on the tech news site Fusion, Roose interviewed a number of individuals (including a former Twitter employee) who have chosen to use scripts or other programs that allow them to control the lifecycle of tweets through timed deletion. Roose writes of one such interview:
Josh Miller, a product manager at Facebook, wrote a piece of code that deleted his tweets after seven days. He frames his tweet-deleting as a decision to make Twitter more like other forms of conversation. "My opinions aren't permanent in my head (I often change my mind over time), and they're not permanent when shared around the dinner table (nobody is recording our conversations)," Miller wrote in an e-mail. "So it just doesn't make sense to me that they would be permanent online." [33]
Hence, informational power can foster a greater degree of control (although by no means complete control) over the long-term of information flows, and a kind of renegotiation of power between the user, Twitter, and the Library of Congress.
With greater informational power in relation to the long-term of information flows on the platform, an individual may want to protest such an information flow by writing to their Congressperson, asking them to intervene and stop the archiving. They may be individuals in positions of structural power that could take advantage of the archive. They may want to contact the Library of Congress to secure access to the archive for historical research, to gain a better understanding of how Twitter users responded to various world events. They may want to stop using Twitter altogether to protest such archiving. Conversely, they may decide they are entirely comfortable with the archiving and may continue using the service just as they had been before. What is important is that access to information about how this part of the platform works creates the possibility for the individual to make a choice. Choice creates the possibility for the expression of informational power. These possibilities are closed off when users do not have the basis of informational power from which to enter these fields of action.
Changes in the information flows of the platform (as part of what O'Reilly lauds as the end of the software development lifecycle) affect users' abilities to self-direct relative to their use of the technology. These changes can undermine the decisions that users made previously. Both technological design and discourse affect access to information from which a user can develop knowledge, thus shaping horizons for users' informational power.
In an interview with NBC News, Philip Howard, the head of the Digital Activism Research Project defined hashtag activism as, "what happens when someone tries to raise public awareness of a political issue using some clever or biting keyword on social media ... If your idea — linked to a good hashtag — gains traction you've started a kind of awareness campaign" (Brewster, 2014). Twitter has become a popular venue for activists attempting to raise awareness about specific issues, causes, or events (Gerbaudo, 2012). One particular way this is done is by getting a hashtag around the cause to show as part of the "Trending Topics." To accomplish this, users interested in an issue will generate tweets about a topic or event using a single hashtag in a focused manner, such as #KONY2012 (Carr, 2012). When the trending topic algorithm determines a specific topic has enough traffic to be counted as 'trending,' the hashtag or commonly used term becomes visible on the interface timelines of other users in the "Trending Topics" section of the interface. Thus, the issue gains prominence within the platform and potentially beyond.
One of the difficulties of making something "trend" is that Twitter does not disclose exactly how the Trending Topic algorithm works (Gillespie, 2012). This lack of algorithmic transparency has led to some confusion about why some topics trend but others do not. For example, during the Occupy Wall Street protests, despite the fact that thousands of users were tweeting with the hashtag #OccupyWallStreet, the term never hit the New York area list of trending topics (Lotan, 2011). Some accused Twitter of censoring the trend (Jeffries, 2011). However, in response to an inquiry from the New York Observer, Twitter representatives pointed to an older company blog post, which states:
Twitter Trends are automatically generated by an algorithm that attempts to identify topics that are being talked about more right now than they were previously. The Trends list is designed to help people discover the 'most breaking' breaking news from across the world, in real-time. The Trends list captures the hottest emerging topics, not just what's most popular ... Sometimes a topic doesn't break into the Trends list because its popularity isn't as widespread as people believe. And, sometimes, popular terms don't make the Trends list because the velocity of conversation isn't increasing quickly enough, relative to the baseline level of conversation happening on an average day ... [emphasis added] (Twitter.com, 2010)
Commenting on the matter in a blog post, Gilad Lotan, chief data scientist at the Internet start-up studio betaworks, states, "what seems to be happening [in #OccupyWallStreet not showing up as a trending topic] is purely algorithmic" (Lotan, 2011). Lotan concludes, for activists trying to raise the visibility of their cause through an appearance on the Trending Topics list, understanding how the algorithm determines what becomes visible is crucial for choosing appropriate messaging. After analyzing a massive dataset of Tweets mentioning OWS related terms and OWS related Twitter trending topics during the Occupy protests, Lotan concludes:
[T]here's much to be lost from not using the same hashtag or term. OWS members have been criticized for using multiple hashtags such as #ows, #OccupyWallStreet and #TakeBackWallStreet instead of sending out a clear message to just use one. The joint volume might not have sustained the trend, but would have definitely given it more visibility at the start ... if one seeks to keep a topic trending, it is important to change it every few days. ... a gradual rise in velocity only makes it harder and harder for the term to trend. (Lotan, 2011)
Lotan's conclusions can be translated back into the concern over informational power and user knowledge. Imagine a hypothetical activist named Zelda. Zelda wants to raise public awareness about a particular issue important to her and her group. She has access to information about how Twitter's Trending Topic algorithm works and knows that it functions by measuring the relative velocity of hashtag use in tweets in the short-term, rather than long-term sustained use. Thus, Zelda's base of informational power fosters decision-making about how best to construct the content of her messages (an exercise of symbolic power). Because Zelda has this base of informational power, when she and her fellow activists seek to make a topic trend, she suggests they try to generate a short-term burst of tweets with hashtag #ZeldasCampaign, but also decide that the group should change the hashtag they use every few days to better their chances of appearing in the "Trending Topics." Thus, Zelda and her group's exercise of symbolic power is informed by her informational power vis-à-vis her access to information about how Twitter's Trending Topic algorithm functions. Thus, the individual's and group's ability to affect change in the world more broadly through the exercise of symbolic power is shaped in part by her relative informational power.
Twitter's descriptions of how the Trending Topics algorithms work and how well the site's design communicates the algorithm's functioning is important in this situation as it contributes to Zelda's informational power. While there are certainly other sources that Zelda might go to learn about how Twitter's Trending Topics algorithms work that also impact her relative informational power (such as other activists, friends or family, newspaper articles about protest movements, Lotan's blogposts, experience watching other trending topics on the site, etc.) the Twitter.com site itself is an influential point for this knowledge to be built or for inaccurate beliefs to be dispelled. For example, if Twitter prominently describes in its new user orientation how Trending Topics are selected based on their short-term velocity and that topics that have been popular for a longer period of time may not show up as trending, and Zelda read this and internalized it, then Zelda would have a wider base of informational power than someone who had not. However, if Twitter does not prominently describe how its Trending Topic algorithm works, then Zelda's informational power is entirely dependent on the accuracy of other sources she may (or may not) have used to build her understanding of the information flows on Twitter.
Further, other users' access to information about how information flows on Twitter are technically constructed impacts their ability to make sense of and understand the context of #ZeldasCampaign if and when they see it as part of the Trending Topics; to know that this is a topic that is popular in the short-term rather than necessarily in the long-term. Their understanding of the technical reasons why this topic is trending may impact their impressions of the informational content conveyed by the campaign. This informational power might also inform their own exercise of symbolic power in choosing to contribute to posts around #ZeldasCampaign or choosing a different hashtag to use as part of a response.
The application of Braman's informational power framework demonstrates the benefits of foregrounding access to information about how Web 2.0 platforms function as part of conversations about the horizons and limits of individual and collective social power. The cases above reveal the vast structural and symbolic power that Web 2.0 purveyors have in influencing how users can learn about how these spaces function technically. At the same time, these cases demonstrate how attention to informational power can take us beyond a conversation about empowerment/disempowerment that is tied merely to produsive capacity or political-economic relations. In application then, studies showing that users frequently maintain inaccurate, incomplete, or incorrect understandings of Web 2.0 platforms cast a long shadow over deterministic, unbridled, user empowerment narratives, instead revealing the boundaries and limits on the possibilities of user power.
Users with diminished states of informational power will face difficulty in exercising power in relation to the wider ecosystem that the information they create becomes a part of. After all, it is difficult to object, protest, or consciously consent to that which you do not know about or cannot learn about. Without knowledge of how these platforms function, users may have difficulty in produsage, in their political-economic relationship with the Web 2.0 world, and in making informed use decisions. A lack of knowledge about how Web 2.0 platforms function limits understanding how the technical environment shapes individual informational experience, thus impacting information sense-making; it inhibits understanding the context of the environment others experience and how others may interpret information from Web 2.0 platforms; and it limits the expression of forms of power with the social, political, cultural, and economic world surrounding the Web 2.0 environment.
About the author
Nicholas Proferes is a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Maryland's College of Information Studies. He studies how discourse, policy, and technological design impact the relationship between users and platforms.
E-mail: proferes [at] umd [dot] edu
1. There is, of course, a large body of earlier scholarly work arguing audiences are never actually "passive." Instead, many media theorists have suggested different media facilitate different levels of engagement, sense-making, and meaning-making; that audiences' ability to engage varies by individuals; and that engagement occurs even when an audience member cannot directly "talk back" through the media. See, for example, the differentiation between hot and cool media made by Marshall McLuhan (1994) and work on differentiating audiences by John Fiske (1987).
2. The term "prosumer" is generally originally credited to Toffler (1980).
3. Thank you to an anonymous reviewer for this point.
4. O'Reilly, 2007, p. 23.
5. Hargittai and Shaw, 2015, p. 437.
6. O'Reilly, 2007, p. 34.
7. Bruns, 2006, p. 1, emphasis original to text.
8. Bruns, 2007, p. 1.
9. Bruns, 2007, p. 7.
10. Jarrett, 2008, paragraph 28.
11. van Dijck and Nieborg, 2009, p. 855.
12. Ritzer and Jurgenson, 2010, p. 13. There is critique that this particular notion is not new; see Comor (2011) and Fuchs (2014).
13. Langlois, et al., 2009, paragraph 17.
14. Gillespie, 2014, p. 178.
15. van Dijck and Nieborg, 2009, p. 866, emphasis added.
16. Gillespie, 2010, paragraph 1.
17. Jensen and Potts, 2004, p. 471.
18. Cranor, 2003, p. 50.
19. Fernback and Papacharissi, 2007, p. 719.
20. See, for example, Acquisti and Gross (2006); Fuchs (2009); Park (2013); Eslami, et al. (2015); and, Wang, et al. (2011).
21. I again would like to thank an anonymous reviewer for this point.
22. Braman, 2006, p. 25.
23. Informational power in this exact form has been a driver in some recent international conflicts, particularly ones involving the knowledge and informational basis associated with the development of nuclear weaponry.
24. Braman, 2006, p. 26.
25. Eslami, et al., 2015, p. 153.
26. Eslami, et al., 2015, p. 161.
27. Raymond, 2010, paragraph 2.
28. Singel, 2010, paragraph 10.
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Editorial history
Received 27 May 2016; accepted 28 May 2016.
This paper is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Web 2.0 user knowledge and the limits of individual and collective power
by Nicholas Proferes.
First Monday, {$numberTitle}
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5210/fm.v21i6.6793
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© First Monday, 1995-2019. ISSN 1396-0466.


text:
THE story of the hard life of shipbreakers working for Thomas Ward's at Preston, Barrow and Morecambe was told in an exhibition called Muck and Brass held a few years ago.
The hundreds of men working at Lancashire's shipbreaking yards risked life and limb to deconstruct imposing vessels, from paddle steamers and liners to submarines and 20,000 ton warships.
Thomas W Ward Ltd of Sheffield opened its ship dismantling department in 1894, with yards in Barrow, Preston and later in Morecambe.
It became the first major supplier of scrap metal to the growing steel and industrial manufacturers.
Everything on board would be recycled to maximise profit.
The process was extremely efficient with ferrous and non-ferrous metals sold separately.
Fittings and equipment would be traded at Ward's showroom in Sheffield.
Books, lamps, toilet bowls, surgical items, carpets were all dismantled — even the timber was turned into garden furniture by the yard's joiners!
The vessels were kept afloat for as long as possible while they were stripped of their engines and motors.
As a ship became lighter it would be towed further inshore until the hull would be broken on the shore or river bed at low tide.
Shipbreaking was extremely hazardous, causing explosions, smoke, noise and attracting vermin.
The workers' wages were low and conditions were poor.
In the early years, the task depended on heavy manual labour and explosives.
Later, oxygen and acetylene cutters were introduced, which were less taxing physically but just as dangerous.
The lead-paint from the ships let off poisonous fumes. Milk and other ineffective liquid remedies were prescribed.
Asbestos was another risk and respirators were introduced in 1965. Limbs and fingers were often trapped or severed by machinery or heavy falling objects.
Men fell from the quaysides, jetties and ships as they undertook awkward tasks.
The weight of the ships' parts had been known to topple cranes, causing the death of one worker in Preston in the 1950s.
In Morecambe, residents objected to T W Ward's yard because it interfered with the 'beautification' of the waterfront and the aspiration to develop it as a tourist town.
However, the ships were always a source of interest to Morecambe's visitors and Ward's were extremely reluctant to withdraw from the resort.
Between 1921 and 1928 more than 419,000 people paid to view the ships!
Ward's were great self-publicists and made the most of vessels with interesting features and histories to increase their visitor appeal.
These included the cruiser, HMS Glasgow, known for its part in the destruction of Admiral von Spee's German raiding squadron in 1914 and the submarine HMS Explorer, designed to test the secret German hydrogen Peroxide fuel system in WWII.
The periscope later became a working exhibit in Barrow's Periscope pub.
Thomas Ward was born in 1853, started work at 15, became a coal merchant and then, because the time was right for it, a scrap metal dealer in Sheffield.
In the early 1870s there was a big demand for scrap metal. There were many big engineering projects and Thomas Ward developed an expertise in dismantling big structures.
During the First World War, Thomas Ward's was heavily engaged in war activities.
There was a shortage of horses which had been sent to the front and in 1916 Ward leased an elephant (and a man to look after it) from a circus.
The firm had the elephant for a couple of years, stabling her near the factory and using her for hauling heavy loads of steel around Sheffield. The elephant's name was Lizzie and the records are full of anecdotes about her — eating a schoolboy's cap, putting her trunk through a kitchen window to help herself, and pushing over a traction engine.
Thomas W Ward is believed to have had a total of 13 yards by the 1920's.
The late Jack Dakres book, "THE LAST TIDE", A history of the Port of Preston 1809 – 1981, has a chapter on shipbreaking in Preston.– Messrs. T.W.Ward Ltd; Preston, with a long list of ships broken up by them. From one company in 1878, it grew to a large group of companies. In a 1965 advertisement they said they had dismantled over 2,000 ships in 67 years of shipbreaking. The Thos W. Ward group was eventually swallowed by Rio Tinto-Zinc in 1982 after a £125m takeover battle.
Ribble Pilot 36

subset: commoncrawl


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Changes concerning the normal repair and maintenance of your existing dock contain some of the most significant of the recent code updates. Under the previous code, we were able to obtain a simple Shoreline Exemption Permit to repair and maintain an existing dock, with no change in configuration. In a number of cities on Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish, the new adopted code requires a reduction in the size of the inshore section of the dock for repairs. This reduction amount and application varies by city. Specifically, only a certain percentage of the dock can be repaired or rebuilt under the Shoreline Exemption permits.
The updated Shoreline Master Plans differ by city, however most have minimum light penetration requirements that usually can be addressed by a new grated surface. In addition, all proposed dock repairs, reconfigurations, and new constructions require a shoreline vegetation plan consisting of native shoreline plantings. We can align you with a professional who can design a planting plan that complements your existing yard and garden. See Existing Dock Reconfiguration and Replacement
Local city dock permits also may require we ensure the project will result in "No Net Loss To Ecological Functions" at the site. The code clearly states that this provision must be addressed by a "professional". In addition, it is up to the local jurisdiction (city) to determine if the project (repair, replacement, or reconfiguration) meets the provision.


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fight coverage, 2018-10-03 13:19:28 , Fury post from around the web
UFC News & MMA Updates & MMA News
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Rafael Dos Anjos vs Kamaru Usman official for TUF 28 Finale headliner
Dana White confirms UFC 'champ-champ' Daniel Cormier has to give up one of his titles
Pic of the day award goes to: Felice Herrig
Nick Diaz meets fans on the streets '209 and much more!
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Source: Israel Export Institute, The Israel Water Authority
AMIAD: Water filtration technologies that accelerate worldwide access to clean water.
IDE TECHNOLOGIES LTD.: A world leader in water treatment solutions, applying innovative sea water desalination and water reuse solutions that increase the availability of drinking water.
NETAFIM: A pioneer and global leader in drip and micro-irrigation solutions that enable growers to maximize food production with minimal environmental impact.
TAKADU: A global leader in Smart Water Network Monitor and a major player in the global effort to prevent water loss.


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• Let's work together
• Big Boss gets shut up order on sensitive matters
President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Aminu Maigari informed a gathering of stakeholders at a truce meeting in Brazil that he has forgiven Super Eagles chief coach Stephen Keshi for all the embarrassment he caused his federation through his utterances in the media.
The meeting arose in Brazil following the draws made for the 2014 World Cup and the need for all parties involved with the preparation exercise for the Eagles to work as a team.
SportingLife scooped that the truce session was brokered by NFF's marketers Pamodzi Sports Marketing (PSM) with Maigari, Keshi and Barrister Christopher Green in attendance to enable all the parties state their grouse in a bid to find a lasting solution to the cold war existing between the coach and the federation.
Part of Maigari's grouse with Keshi was his penchant for leaking sensitive matters to the media which in the federation president's words "put the federation in disrepute."
Maigari was also miffed that Keshi undermined their mutual relationship each time bad stories in the media between the body and the coach were published with particular mention of the outstanding salaries.
Keshi used the opportunity to apologise for all that angered the federation especially the president who he described as his father and the one who backed him to secure the Super Eagles job, at a time when people had doubts about his technical savvy.
It was resolved at the meeting that Keshi should handle the logistics specific to the team such as picking the team's abode, training centre, e.t.c. while the NFF chiefs promised to give the coach all the support he needs to excel at the Mundial next year beginning with the opening game against Iran on June 16.
Again, it was agreed that Keshi shouldn't divulge sensitive issues to the media after the Big Boss denied leaking the information that he and his assistants were being owed salaries to the tune of seven months which have now been settled.


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Impressive Office Gardens in Canton, CT
Impress your clients with an environment that is professional, quiet, and free from distraction
When you have to meet with clients in person, what sort of message is your office space presenting to them? The location and appearance of your office can end up playing a major role in how clients view the services you offer. It can also transform the way you do work when you are alone. So where do you find an office space for rent that is able to free you of distractions while making a strong, positive impression on your clients? The answer is 101 River Road.
Our office gardens in Canton, CT, create an environment that is professional, quiet, and free from distractions while remaining very attractive and welcoming to any clients that you have visit you. This spacious, yet private workspace is designed specifically to help entrepreneurs and small businesses. It gives them the chance to settle into a dynamic space that provides all the room they need to confidently pursue their goals while helping their business flourish.
If you are looking for a shared workspace or private office that is going to help you define the mood of your business, then you are going to love what we have to offer you. Our office space for rent is ideal for any professional and comes with several benefits for employers, employees, and clients alike.
Why Choose 101 River Road?
Anyone who has driven through Canton knows two things. First, most of the city's businesses buildings are situated right on Route 44. Second, this location is notoriously known for being plagued with constant traffic, which makes it difficult for you and your clients to navigate and park. What you may not know, unless you've already looked at prices, is that the area also suffers from artificially high rent prices.
When you combine all of these factors together you will quickly find that trying to locate your business right off of Route 44 you are going to put a lot of unnecessary challenges in your way towards successfully growing your business. There are other, better options available to you, however, and they start with us.
Whether you are searching for a short-term shared workspace or a long-term office space, we offer several flexible options that are going to help you find the right type of home for your business. Our office building isn't far from the hustle and bustle of Route 44 and near Canton's commercial hub, but in an area where drivers can easily pull into the parking lot and safely read the sign from the street. This removes much of the potential frustration your clients could have trying to get to your location if you were in one of the higher rent office spaces in the commercial hub.
The benefits aren't just for your clients, however. They are also for you. Our quiet, cozy, and convenient location affords our tenants several hard-to-find benefits that will make them truly fall in love with their office space. These benefits help you enjoy a distraction free, calming workspace that is easy to navigate and work in. Just a few of the different benefits you can expect to enjoy when you rent our one of our office spaces include:
• Clear Signage for Easy Navigation
• Reasonable Rent Prices
• Scenic Garden Views
• Flexible Rental Options
• Convenient Location
Contact us to speak with one of our friendly and helpful staff members about available office space for rent. We are proud to serve clients located throughout Canton, Avon, Simsbury, Burlington, and Unionville, Connecticut, as well as the surrounding areas.


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( Promo that doesn't have to do with the communityCollapse )
Coincidences or Premontions?Has anyone else had a problem distigunishiung between th eline of reality and make believe?
( Gaurdian AngelsCollapse )
( Fallen Angels and DemonsCollapse )
This comm is getting pretty dead Everyone Reply with your very first past life memory :)My very first past life memory is:I saw this guy with blonde hair and marble blue eyes standing in front of a store. it was in the 1890/1900 era.
( Lorain County OhioCollapse )
Who I was....Ashley Henderson/Evans, Norfolk Va/Fayetteville, NC/Henderson, GA/Elyria Ohio (1955-1977)- SucuideTabitha James, Elyria,Ohio/ Norfolk VA (1932-1945)- MurderAbigail Townshend/Burdett/Meyers, Geoergia/Virgina/Ohio (1885-1914)ChildbirthMary Beth Sumner (unknown anything for now)Moria Richards, Ireland/France (unknown birth or death) Marigold Bishop, Salem, Mass. (d.around 1692/93)MurderTheres more but my mind is going blank.
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What Do you believe in?
Created by watchyouburn and has 10 votes on bzoink!
Welcome to xxbreakxitxx
Well this is what ive been looking forOhh YeaNew member
Welcome to our new member jennifer___xo
Has anyone figured out if they have a past life? If so, Care to share who you were...Here's a few of mine( My findings of who I wasCollapse )
Somethings in the past you want to keep in the past...Is there something that you have found along your journey that you want to unlearn?
There cannot be good if there is no evil there cannot be any evil if there is no good. So we are in a constant fight that cannot be won or lost but we must keep fighting for if any side is to win our world would be lost foerever. This precious balance is what keeps everything going round it's what keeps us from what we are not. Just a little thought I thought people would enjoy.
A gathering of sites...http://www.deathrock.net/ariadne/ruins.htmlhttp://www.graveaddiction.com/abindex.htmlhttp://www.midnightsociety.com/web/Abandoned/http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/sunshyn178/abandoned/main.htmlhttp://www.fineart-photography.com/places.html <---this is just photo's...but they're of abandoned placeshttp://www.forgottendetroit.com/http://www.afallon.com/http://www.ghostinmysuitcase.com/http://www.ispr.net/
I saw this in lived_beforeI thought it was interesting and I should link it :Dhttp://www.livejournal.com/community/lived_before/1409.html?#cutid1