Contemporary Culture and the Web

1. Contemporary Cultureand the Web Dr Axel Bruns Creative Industries Faculty Queensland University of Technology a.bruns@qut.edu.au

2. A Tale of Two Webs… • Web development in divergent directions: • towards greater commercialisation – high production values, broadband-ready, but relatively non-interactive packaged content • towards more user co-creativity – highly interactive, open-ended and unfinished forms, emerging from the grassroots

3. A: From Homepages to Blogs • Homepages: • began as basic information pages, with personal details, favourite links, etc. • usually static, using plain HTML, infrequently edited, non-interactive • Blogs: • ranging from public diaries to personal commentary on current events • dynamic, database-driven, frequently updated, enabling user commentary and interlinkage with other sites (e.g. snurb.info) • embedded in a vast, loose network of blogs: the blogosphere

4. B: From Community News to Open News • Community News: • began as a simple way of updating current events of interest to a specific group • usually on static HTML pages, updated by a small group of enthusiasts, non-interactive • Open News: • large-scale Web publications created and edited by the community itself • dynamic, database-driven content enabling any user to submit new content or comment on published stories, or even to help edit submitted content (e.g. Kuro5hin.org)

5. C: From Resource Sites to Wikis • Resource sites: • began as collections of background information on specific topics • usually on static HTML pages, maintained by a small group of experts in their field, non-interactive • Wikis: • collaboratively edited, database-driven encyclopaedias on specific topics • drawing on the expertise of large user communities which are able to add and edit content at any time (e.g. the Wikipedia)

6. Common Traits • Technology: • reliance on database backends makes sites dynamic, interactive, and searchable • such technology is now in the hands of end users, not just corporations (users are often the earliest adopters) • Community: • move from individual to communal authorship: users comment on and edit one another’s work (sites resemble palimpsests) • open source model: trust in the ‘power of eyeballs’ in improving the quality of content • heterarchical rather than hierarchical power structures • Creativity: • move from mere interactivity to intercreativity (Tim Berners-Lee) • free contribution of one’s work in support of a greater good (a creative commons)

7. Beyond the Webpage • Change in the basic unit of information: • from the individual page to the individual entry • e.g. a blog posting • e.g. a news story • e.g. an encyclopedia entry • towards syndication of information • e.g. through RSS (Rich Site Summary) newsfeeds(see RSS feed for BBC News on snurb.info) • e.g. through feed aggregator and analyser services(see Daypop rankings of most popular topics and links) • e.g. through TrackBack and other networking tools(see TrackBacks in Lawrence Lessig’s blog)

8. Information as Virus • Information becomes viral: • detached from its traditional host, the Webpage • carried rapidly through multiple channels • attaching itself to various hosts in mutated forms • Content is detached from format: • embedded in different contexts, modified and commented upon • forming a true web of information, not merely a web of pages • widely distributed across multiple platforms and contexts • analogous to filesharing, where music is detached from its physical carrier medium (but here usually legal and intentional)

9. Implications for Web Archiving • What should be archived? • it may begin to make more sense to archive individual entries rather than whole pages • Who is the author? • collaboratively edited content has complex, multiple authorship which is not always readily apparent • How to capture the context? • distributed webs of information spread across multiple Websites are difficult to archive • How to capture the functionality? • content may only become visible as users query these Websites: it may be useful to archive the database backend • How to identify new trends?