Table Of ContentEDITED BY
GEERT LOVINK AND MIRIAM RASCH
INC READER #8
The Unlike Us Reader offers a critical examination of social media, bringing
H
together theoretical essays, personal discussions, and artistic manifestos. C
How can we understand the social media we use everyday, or consciously S
A
choose not to use? We know very well that monopolies control social R
media, but what are the alternatives? While Facebook continues to increase M
A
its user population and combines loose privacy restrictions with control RI S
over data, many researchers, programmers, and activists turn towards MI E
I
designing a decentralized future. Through understanding the big networks D L
N O
from within, be it by philosophy or art, new perspectives emerge. A S
K P E
Unlike Us is a research network of artists, designers, scholars, activists, and VIN NO IV
programmers, with the aim to combine a critique of the dominant social media O O T
platforms with work on ‘alternatives in social media’, through workshops, T L M A
conferences, online dialogues, and publications. Everyone is invited to R N
be a part of the public discussion on how we want to shape the network EE A R
G I E
architectures and the future of social networks we are using so intensely. Y D T
www.networkcultures.org/unlikeus ED B M E AL
T
Contributors: Solon Barocas, Caroline Bassett, Tatiana Bazzichelli, David Beer, DI L R
David M. Berry, Mercedes Bunz, Florencio Cabello, Paolo Cirio, Joan Donovan, E A EI
Louis Doulas, Leighton Evans, Marta G. Franco, Robert W. Gehl, Seda Gürses, I H
C
Alexandra Haché, Harry Halpin, Mariann Hardey, Pavlos Hatzopoulos, Yuk Hui, T
O
Ippolita, Nathan Jurgenson, Nelli Kambouri, Jenny Kennedy, Ganaele Langlois, S D
Simona Lodi, Alessandro Ludovico, Tiziana Mancinelli, Andrew McNicol, Andrea N
Miconi, Arvind Narayanan, Wyatt Niehaus, Korinna Patelis, PJ Rey, Sebastian A
Sevignani, Bernard Stiegler, Marc Stumpel, Tiziana Terranova, Vincent Toubiana,
Brad Troemel, Lonneke van der Velden, Martin Warnke and D.E. Wittkower.
Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam 2013
ISBN 978-90-818575-2-9
Social Media
MonopolieS
and Their
alTernaTiveS
2
Unlike Us Reader
Social Media Monopolies and Their Alternatives
Editors: Geert Lovink and Miriam Rasch
Copy editing: Rachel Somers Miles
Design: Katja van Stiphout
Cover design: Giulia Ciliberto and Silvio Lorusso
Printer: Joh. Enschedé, Amsterdam
Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2013
ISBN: 978-90-818575-2-9
Contact
Institute of Network Cultures
phone: +31205951866
fax: +31205951840
email: [email protected]
web: www.networkcultures.org
Order a copy of this book by email:
[email protected]
A PDF of this publication can also be downloaded freely at:
www.networkcultures.org/publications/inc-readers
Join the Unlike Us mailinglist at:
http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/unlike-us_listcultures.org
Supported by: CREATE-IT applied research, Amsterdam University of Applied
Sciences (Hogeschool van Amsterdam) and Stichting Democratie en Media
Thanks to Margreet Riphagen at INC, to all of the authors for their contributions,
Patrice Riemens for his translation, Rachel Somers Miles for her copy editing,
and to Stichting Democratie en Media for their financial support.
This publication is licensed under Creative Commons
Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).
To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/.
social media monopolies and their alternatives 3
EDITED BY
GeeRt Lovink
AND MiRiaM Rasch
INC READER #8
4
Previously published inc Readers:
The INC Reader series is derived from conference contributions and produced by
the Institute of Network Cultures. The readers are available in print and PDF form.
INC Reader #7: Geert Lovink and Nathaniel Tkacz (eds),
Critical Point of View: A Wikipedia Reader, 2011.
INC Reader #6: Geert Lovink and Rachel Somers Miles (eds),
Video Vortex Reader II: Moving Images Beyond YouTube, 2011.
INC Reader #5: Scott McQuire, Meredith Martin and Sabine Niederer (eds),
Urban Screens Reader, 2009.
INC Reader #4: Geert Lovink and Sabine Niederer (eds),
Video Vortex Reader: Responses to YouTube, 2008.
INC Reader #3: Geert Lovink and Ned Rossiter (eds),
MyCreativity Reader: A Critique of Creative Industries, 2007.
INC Reader #2: Katrien Jacobs, Marije Janssen and Matteo Pasquinelli (eds),
C’LICK ME: A Netporn Studies Reader, 2007.
INC Reader #1: Geert Lovink and Soenke Zehle (eds),
Incommunicado Reader, 2005.
All INC Readers, and other publications like the Network Notebooks
Series and Theory on Demand, can be downloaded as a PDF for free
from www.networkcultures.org/publications.
Or check www.scribd.com/collections/3073695/INC-Readers for print on
demand, and www.issuu.com/instituteofnetworkcultures for online reading.
social media monopolies and their alternatives 5
conTenTS
Geert Lovink
A World Beyond Facebook: Introduction to the Unlike Us Reader 9
TheorY oF Social Media
Bernard stiegler
The Most Precious Good in the Era of Social Technologies 16
David M. Berry
Against Remediation 31
Ganaele Langlois
Social Media, or Towards a Political Economy of Psychic Life 50
nathan Jurgenson and PJ Rey
The Fan Dance: How Privacy Thrives in an Age of Hyper-Publicity 61
Martin Warnke
Databases as Citadels in the Web 2.0 76
andrea Miconi
Under the Skin of the Networks: How Concentration Affects Social Practices
in Web 2.0 Environments 89
Yuk hui and harry halpin
Collective Individuation: The Future of the Social Web 103
criTical plaTForM analYSiS
korinna Patelis
Political Economy and Monopoly Abstractions: What Social Media Demand 117
Jenny kennedy
Rhetorics of Sharing: Data, Imagination, and Desire 127
Mercedes Bunz
As You Like It: Critique in the Era of an Affirmative Discourse 137
caroline Bassett
Silence, Delirium, Lies? 146
ippolita and tiziana Mancinelli
The Facebook Aquarium: Freedom in a Profile 159
plaTForM caSe STUdieS
Mariann hardey and David Beer
Talking About Escape 166
D.e. Wittkower
Boredom on Facebook 188
Leighton evans
How to Build a Map for Nothing: Immaterial Labor and
Location-Based Social Networking 189
andrew Mcnicol
None of Your Business? Analyzing the Legitimacy and Effects
of Gendering Social Spaces Through System Design 200
6
Robert W. Gehl
‘Why I Left Facebook’: Stubbornly Refusing to not Exist even After
Opting out of Mark Zuckerberg’s Social Graph 220
arTiSTic inTervenTionS
simona Lodi
Illegal Art and Other Stories About Social Media 239
alessandro Ludovico and Paolo cirio
Face-to-Facebook, Smiling in the Eternal Party 254
Louis Doulas and Wyatt niehaus
On Pleaselike.com and Facebook Bliss 259
Brad troemel
Art After Social Media as a Rejection of Free Market Conventions 264
tatiana Bazzichelli
Disruptive Business as Artistic Intervention 269
acTiviSM and Social Media USeS
Marc stumpel
Facebook Resistance: Augmented Freedom 274
Pavlos hatzopoulos and nelli kambouri
The Tactics of Occupation: Becoming Cockroach 289
tiziana terranova and Joan Donovan
Occupy Social Networks: The Paradoxes of Using Corporate Social Media
in Networked Movements 296
alTernaTiveS
Lonneke van der velden
Meeting the Alternatives: Notes About Making Profiles and Joining Hackers 312
sebastian sevignani
Facebook vs. Diaspora: A Critical Study 323
Florencio cabello, Marta G. Franco and alexandra haché
Towards a Free Federated Social Web: Lorea Takes the Networks! 338
solon Barocas, seda Gürses, arvind narayanan and vincent toubiana
Unlikely Outcomes? A Distributed Discussion on the Prospects and Promise
of Decentralized Personal Data Architectures 347
appendiceS
Unlike Us Research agenda 364
Unlike Us conferences 373
Unlike Us #1 in Limassol
Unlike Us #2 in Amsterdam
author Biographies 376
social media monopolies and their alternatives 7
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