digest of publications about social networks and communities

An interesting study of social connections and social networks. The author made an attempt on the basis of a mathematical model to describe the transformation of connections between participants in social networks and put forward a hypothesis on how they can be managed. The work is serious, even fundamental, and the first commentator does not agree with the conclusions of the author. The post is worth reading at least because it gives a reason to look further and deeper than sketchy judgments about social activity, squeezed in the vise of “money-tools-platforms”.

Political Economy Facebook**

Translation of an article 10 years ago, however, for someone who has not lost its relevance. The author is a well-known sociologist and researcher of social networks Christian Fuchs. From Alvin Toffler’s description of the economics of prosumerism, when producer and consumer are united in one person, to Karl Marx’s theory of exploitation, which in the digital age is being transformed in the social media business. About how prosumer users create content, and then – without their desire and consent – are sold as a product to advertisers.

How social networks and our behavior influence each other

Last autumn, a wave of publications on the book by Max Fischer “Machine of Chaos” swept through English-language publications. In my opinion, the New York Times columnist spoke about it most fully and adequately. What is Fischer talking about? About the polarizing effect of social networks and algorithms that radicalize users and manipulate them for the sake of engagement indicators, which ultimately brings income to social networks, and fixes people’s addiction to negative content. The pleasure of moral indignation is one of the key feelings that Fisher believes is being exploited by algorithms developed by Google and Meta*, who have found that they can monetize this outrage very well.

Manifesto B++, social networks + Wikipedia + directory in just one engine

An attempt to reinvent Wikipedia and all social networks at once. Censorship- and spam-free distributed systems, content policy, and interaction between participants is an idealistic view of how the Internet can develop.

Who and how developed the Wikipedia technology

A real and sobering example of practitioners. And an engaging storyline. A story about how Wikipedia has evolved and scaled. The author, a Wikimedia Foundation site reliability engineer, refers to legendary people and significant events in his story. How did the project for Brion Wibber and Tim Starling begin. What is the “most controversial move in the history of Wikipedia” by Derek Ramsey. How things were with the servers, how the engine changed, how the developers lost their power. It was a revelation to me that it was the developers who ran the first version of the Wiki and only they could block users and appoint new administrators.

_{* Meta Platforms, as well as Facebook** and Instagram belonging to it: recognized as an extremist organization, its activities are prohibited in Russia, ** are prohibited in Russia}