Best and Krueger – Online Interactions and Social Capital: Distinguishing between New and Existing Ties

Best, Samuel and Brian Krueger. “Online Interactions and Social Capital:  Distinguishing between New and Existing Ties.” Social Science Computer Review 24  (2006): 395-410. Print. This is an empirical study conducted by sociologists Samuel J. Best and Brian S. Krueger that measures the degree of online only interactions a group of people have with other people.  To do this, the authors use s probability survey of U.S. residents.  According to the authors, they... Read More

Shirky – File-Sharing Goes Social

Shirky, Clay. “File-Sharing Goes Social.” Clay Shirky’s Writings About the Internet.2/15/2010 (2003).  <http://www.shirky.com/writings/file-sharing_social.html>. Shirky highlights the RIAA’s “Crush the Connectors” strategy in this article.  Specifically Shirky notes how the disintegration of highly networked, multiply linked node systems via RIAA action will work to deter file sharing among groups; however, he also recognizes that the nature of... Read More

Ghosh – Cooking Pot Markets: An Economic Model for Trade in Free Goods and Services on the Internet

Ghosh, Rishab Aiyer. “Cooking Pot Markets:  An Economic Model for Trade in Free Goods and Services on the Internet.” First Monday 3.2 (1998). 2/15/2010 <http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/580/501>. This article considers the motivations for producing free products – like Firefox, Netscape and other open-source (or not) freeware – for download over the internet.  The author argues that neither money nor altruism is the... Read More

Rajagopal and Bojin – Cons in the Panopticon: Anti-Globalization and Cyber-Piracy

Rajagopal, Indhu and Nis Bojin. “Cons in the Panopticon:  Anti-Globalization and Cyber-Piracy.” First Monday 9.6 (2004). 2/15/2010 <http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1174/1094>. Rajagopal and Bojin argue that the internet is fast becoming a corporately controlled panopticon that regulates the social, economic, and political relationships between users and corporations.  In response to the panopticonization of the internet... Read More

James and Johnson – Bowling Alone but Online Together: Social Capital in E-Communities

Scott, James and Thomas Johnson. “Bowling Alone but Online Together:  Social Capital in E-Communities.” Community Development 36 1 (2006): 9-28. Print. In this work Scott and Johnson consider how voluntary association online creates e-communities; further, the authors also consider what the evolution of electronic communities presents for community development theory.  To serve this purpose the authors ask the following questions: What are the key features of online... Read More