Proulx, Serge et Lorna Heaton. 2011. Forms of User Contribution in Online Communities: Mechanisms of Mutual Recognition between Contributors. Dans Jo Pierson, Enid Mante-Meijer et Eugène Loos (dirs.) New Media Technologies and User Empowerment. New York : Peter Lang, 67-81.
Over the past decade, the Internet has developed as a space for socialisation and sociability. At the same time, users of the Web are becoming information producers. We suggest that a certain unity underlies the diversity of collaborative practices in online environments. We are analyzing processes of creation and exchange in online environments along four dimensions: (a) modes of visibility that facilitate social recognition among contributors; (b) levels of expertise displayed by contributors; (c) norms and governance models among groups of contributors; (d) the insertion of contributory behaviours in the context of an economy of the immaterial based on the exchange of informational goods. Our goal is to shed light on the complexity and fluidity of exchanges among amateurs and professionals. We illustrate our approach by looking at citizen cyberjournalism and the case of OhmyNews. Can new social media support the principles of participatory democracy? And, if so, how? To what extent are ordinary users empowered? Or are their contributions and their goodwill exploited by the organisations that aggregate them?
This content has been updated on 26 October 2018 at 22 h 20 min.