An article on networks and capitalism by Rachel O’Dwyer and Linda Doyle has been published by Berfrois. It tackles some of the economic problems created by developments on social media – as well as some of the ways that vale is extracted. Here’s a excerpt:
The expropriation of the digital commons always threatens to exhaust productivity, and similarly, the new modes of surplus extraction threaten the organisation of physical property. Often, the necessity of economic barriers that consolidate and exercise property rights are at odds with the growing centrality of the commons to information capitalism. These implications have already manifested for the owners of digital content, such as the media and entertainment industries, who are forced to radically alter their business models in response to the fluid and fluctuating metrics of the digital economy. But these conditions are prescient for the owners of network media also. While cognitive capitalism is progressively dependent on the exponential growth and availability of communications resources, it challenges the traditional owners of ICTs to extract a significant return from their investment in core infrastructure.
Thinking culture 