Power in Networks: Technical and Social
In Anarchy, Status Updates, and Utopia, James Grimmelmann discusses two types of power problems that all social software have: technical and social power. In any space controlled by software, the person behind the software is in control of the data and has the authority to alter the database, and in some extreme cases, confiscate money or even silence people. For example, PayPal has blocked online fundraisers by freezing the money, and only returned the money after bad publicity. With the power to modify their system and potentially erase all traces of online goods, PayPal has the technical power to influence people’s lives with a few lines of code. As a result, many netizens choose to leave the social network, instead of conforming to the rules of the online authorities.
On the other hand, social power has the ability to force people to stay in the network, simply because of how a social network is formed. When a community comes together, each person that contributes to how the community is formed has the power and control over the community. In the case of social media networks, such as Facebook, that power comes from friends and family on the site. When someone posts a status, we feel obligated to maintain the practice of posting as well, forcing us to stay on the social network, because we are subjected to the social power of the community.
In class, we analyze the effects of power on large social audiences, as the power of a website grows as the number of users increases. The power that an authority gains from being in control of the data follows the rich-get-richer phenomenon, which allows the authority to have even more technical power over its consumers. For social power, the article considers positive externalities that result from increasing pressure on the netizen from the authority of the community. The value of staying in a social network is dependent on the power of the person controlling the network or software. As more people join a network, the community has more reason to stay on the network and interact with the community, which is a positive externality.
This article emphasizes the effect of power in a social network and its relation to software we use in our daily lives. While it is said that the dominant strategy in any large social network is to exit, the power of the authority, its control over the data and the social pressure proves difficult to leave a network. Perhaps that is why social networks and software dominate the internet and our lives today.
Link: http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1878&context=plr