[iDC] A History of the Social Web

[Trebor Scholz]

Dear iDCers,

In between discussion threads I'd like to share a history of the Social
Web that I'm working on. It's mighty long and while I'd normally post it
here full-length, I prefer to point you to my blog this time simply
because the essay is in progress. Adding it to the iDC archive would not
allow further changes. You can also access two slide presentations of
this material and a timeline.

A History of the Social Web (draft)
http://tinyurl.com/338pyp

Your comments on the blog are very welcome.

Cheers,
Trebor S.

from the introduction:

A History of the Social Web

This is a cross-cultural, critical history of social life on the
Internet. It captures technical, cultural, and political events that
influenced the evolution of computer-assisted person-to-person
communication via the net. Acknowledging the role of grassroots
movements, this history does not solely focus on mainstream culture with
all its mergers, acquisitions, sales and markets, and the (mostly male)
geeks, engineers, scientists, and garage entrepreneurs who implemented
their dreams in hardware and software. It does trace the changing nature
of labor and typologies of those who create value online as much as it
searches for changing approaches toward control, privacy, and
intellectual property. This history shows strategies for direct social
change based on the technologies and practices, which already exist.

Emphasizing the role of women whenever possible, this history shows that
the interests of those who used the Net as social platform shaped it in
the interplay of military, scientific, entrepreneurial, activist,
artistic, and altruistic agendas. The evolution of the Social Web was
driven by fear, desire (to be with others), and fandom. By no means
exclusively an American story, it shows instances in which users
succeeded when striving for open access, jointly negotiating with
corporate platform-providers.