Comments on: On Frictionless Scale-Making http://savageminds.org/2008/04/10/on-frictionless-scale-making/ Notes and Queries in Anthropology — A Group Blog Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:10:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Kerim http://savageminds.org/2008/04/10/on-frictionless-scale-making/comment-page-1/#comment-283898 Kerim Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:58:31 +0000 http://savageminds.org/2008/04/10/on-frictionless-scale-making/#comment-283898 Well, some things scale, and it is possible to use the internet to organize real-world political action, but not everything scales at the same rate and in the same way. Although I didn't go into it, I was partially responding to a line in CKelty's paper where he suggests that the scaling of the internet is quantitative rather than qualitative. Shirky's book suggests that it is both. Wikipedia is a good example. The vast majority of edits are by people who make only a couple of minor contributions. That is a much lower barrier to participation than previously existed for such projects. Of course, it wouldn't work if there wasn't a core of extremely dedicated people. Shirky says that most online collaborative efforts describe a power law curve. The long-tail of online participation is a kind of scaling, but its a very particular kind. You can watch Shirky give a book talk <a href="http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/interactive/events/2008/02/shirky" rel="nofollow">here</a>. Well, some things scale, and it is possible to use the internet to organize real-world political action, but not everything scales at the same rate and in the same way. Although I didn’t go into it, I was partially responding to a line in CKelty’s paper where he suggests that the scaling of the internet is quantitative rather than qualitative. Shirky’s book suggests that it is both.

Wikipedia is a good example. The vast majority of edits are by people who make only a couple of minor contributions. That is a much lower barrier to participation than previously existed for such projects. Of course, it wouldn’t work if there wasn’t a core of extremely dedicated people. Shirky says that most online collaborative efforts describe a power law curve. The long-tail of online participation is a kind of scaling, but its a very particular kind.

You can watch Shirky give a book talk here.

]]> By: Erik Davis http://savageminds.org/2008/04/10/on-frictionless-scale-making/comment-page-1/#comment-283697 Erik Davis Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:47:43 +0000 http://savageminds.org/2008/04/10/on-frictionless-scale-making/#comment-283697 bq. But while the ridiculously easy group formation fostered by the internet makes it easy to form a group, the very fact of scale no longer serves as an index of group-strength. An excellent observation. Does this mean it doesn't scale? If it gets bigger in the same fashion, but loses its ability to accomplish its intended function, it seems like the opposite of scalability (well-explained via the internet example)! bq. But while the ridiculously easy group formation fostered by the internet makes it easy to form a group, the very fact of scale no longer serves as an index of group-strength.

An excellent observation. Does this mean it doesn’t scale? If it gets bigger in the same fashion, but loses its ability to accomplish its intended function, it seems like the opposite of scalability (well-explained via the internet example)!

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