Social Media Sweepstakes!
on the last day of class, go for it
Our readings this week explore numerous aspects of social media, evoking the tensions between
lofty goals and unintended consequences, between grassroots organizing and corporate
sponsorship, and between knowledge generation and too much information, amongst others. The
two edges of the social media sword gleam wickedly when we consider examples such as:
 The amazing collective intelligence engineered by Survivor spoiler communities,
described by Jenkins, may be potentially manipulated by the corporate interests that
sponsor the show, for the purpose of generating yet more interest (and more buzz, more
ratings, more profit).
 The systems that enable political dissidents to organize, communicate, and advocate also
enable their surveillance and manipulation by authorities, as Morozov notes; let’s also not
forget that the Internet doesn’t discriminate between “legitimate” dissidents and those we
would call terrorists, between “authoritarian” governments and “democratic”
governments, and so on.
 The community-curated image collections described by Terras provide a means for
collaborative production and publication of an array of materials; if such efforts can be
conducted by volunteers, then the work of professionals may be seen as obsolete.
 The platforms that enable social media services are typically free, so that anybody with
Internet access can participate. However, these platforms, and the data generated through
them, are owned by corporations, whose allegiances are ultimately to owners and
shareholders, not to ideals, governments, or even their users.
In this final game of the semester, we will take on these contradictions in the form of a contest.
You, in a group of no more than four people, will propose a social media service for the iSchool
community. (Examples of existing social media services would be the Insider and Flipsider
mailing lists.) After very brief presentations, we will vote on the best ideas, and fabulous prizes
will be awarded.
Here’s how this will work:
Step 1: Design a social media service for the iSchool community.
How can the iSchool harness the benefits of social media—collective intelligence, community
engagement, democratic participation, mutual learning, advocacy and activism, and so on—via a
totally new service? What can you do to ensure that the other edge of the sword—increased
surveillance, opportunity for manipulation, unpaid labor, incivility, etc.—is dulled?
In developing your idea, you might want to consider the following:
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Goals. What problem are you hoping to solve?
Utility. What are the benefits of participation and how can you articulate these to various
community members?
Inclusion. Who can use the service and in what ways? Should there be different sorts of
participants?
Diversity. Will participation be easier for some people as opposed to others? How can
multiple perspectives be represented fairly?
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Conduct. Do you need to develop standards for politeness, obscenity, harassment,
relevance and so on? How would these be enforced?
Permanence. How long are contributions maintained? What happens to them?
Anonymity. How can you maintain freedom of speech while ensuring civil discourse?
How can you ensure that users will not face ill consequences as a result of their
participation?
Accuracy. Does information ever need to be verified? What procedures would enable
this?
Ownership. Who will own, run, and maintain the service (the school, a student
organization, a new entity)? What can be done with its assets?
Step 2: Present your idea to the class.
In about three minutes, tell us what your idea is, the benefits that it provides, and how it avoids
potential problems (you might make use of the list in step 1). The class will then have the
opportunity to ask you questions about your idea, for an equal three or so minutes.
Speaking duties can be split up amongst group members as you will.
Step 3: Interrogate the other groups.
You want to win the fabulous prizes, right? Ask the other groups really hard questions, the ones
that you hope no one asks you. (You might spend some time in step 1 thinking about questions to
ask.)
Step 4: Vote.
We will use a secret ballot, and everyone gets one vote. You cannot vote for your own group. (Do
not even think about violating this, because if you get caught, there will be severe consequences.)
Winners will then claim the aforementioned loot.
Step 5: Go forth and celebrate your new appreciation for the complexity of “information.”
Thank you for a wonderful semester!