Internet Sociology

Avvertenza: la tesi qui riportata è stata sottoposta a una lieve revisione formale rispetto alla versione sottoposta alla commissione di laurea.

Condurre una vita associata significa oggi, in buona parte, condurre una vita connessa. Molti degli aspetti della nostra esistenza passano ormai attraverso la rete e i dispositivi che consentono di accedervi: ciò riguarda non solo gli interessi, le relazioni personali o il tempo libero, ma anche la vita lavorativa e la possibilità di usufruire di servizi pubblici.

La versatilità della rete e delle tecnologie informatiche si pone alla radice del loro successo e contribuisce a spiegare la loro diffusione capillare. Questa stessa ramificazione, che ha messo in collegamento tra loro miliardi di utenti in tutto il mondo, ha visto ugualmente l’imporsi nella vita pubblica e nell’economia dei cosiddetti new media. Ciò ha avuto tra i suoi effetti una sostanziale alterazione delle modalità di produzione, diffusione e fruizione degli oggetti culturali, oltre ad imprimere una trasformazione radicale a quel che si è soliti chiamare cultura. A maggior ragione, quindi, chi si occupa di studi umanistici è chiamato a interrogarsi sulle problematiche che emergono da tali rivolgimenti e sui loro esiti possibili.

Abbiamo iniziato tracciando per sommi capi una storia delle origini di internet, inframezzandola con alcuni momenti decisivi che hanno riguardato il diffondersi dell’informatica nella cultura di massa. Ciò ci ha consentito di esaminare sia l’avverarsi di una rete oligopolistica e trasversalmente commerciale, sia quelle aspirazioni e possibilità che non hanno avuto modo di realizzarsi o hanno finito per assumere posizioni marginali. Successivamente, ci siamo concentrati sulle dinamiche economiche sottese allo stato attuale del web, che coinvolgono gli utenti attraverso vari espedienti tecnici finalizzati alla raccolta dati e alla personalizzazione di contenuti e annunci pubblicitari. Inoltre, abbiamo tentato di comprendere, su basi sociologiche e psicologiche, come un’organizzazione degli apparati tecnologici a fini prettamente economici contribuisca a precisare una corrispondente strutturazione delle identità personali, della circolazione d’informazioni, delle esperienze culturali e delle relazioni. Da tali osservazioni empiriche emerge come gli attuali assetti tecnico-economici favoriscano l’ulteriore radicamento di una cultura incentrata su un individualismo egoistico e narcisistico, su relazioni interpersonali strumentali e su un’esperienza estetica compromessa dalle logiche del consumo.

La concretezza di queste stesse osservazioni ha gettato le fondamenta per la costruzione di un percorso filosofico che, a partire dalla teoria dell’individuazione concepita da Gilbert Simondon, approda alle riflessioni sulla tecnica di Bernard Stiegler. Secondo quest’ultimo, l’implementazione diffusa delle tecnologie computazionali a sostegno del consumo corrisponde a una de-individuazione dei singoli e dei gruppi, ossia a un’incapacità di differenziazione che comporta un crollo del desiderio e un irrigidimento mortifero. Tale irrigidimento si attua anche nella sovrabbondanza di esteriorizzazione tecnica che colpisce i saperi, cosicché gli esseri umani finiscono per perdere il loro saper vivere. In conclusione, abbiamo passato al setaccio il pensiero di Maurice Merleau-Ponty, cercando nel linguaggio dei segnali che alludessero a possibilità alternative e alle potenzialità taumaturgiche del linguaggio stesso. Come si vedrà, tali segnali assumono una luminescenza eccezionalmente vivida nella parola letteraria.

Vastly growing online free-hospitality networks are a phenomenon of modern times. They have been already subject of social and peace studies, here explored from the perspective of information science.
The main focus in this research, author puts on the role of information in modern society, particularly on access to information and information management as prerequisites for participative and democratic society.
Both theoretically and empirically, author explores first the changes in society that were caused by popular usage of Internet, secondly introduces the phenomenon of free-hospitality as an example of modern social network, lastly explores in details functioning of these networks and throughout whole text the role of information in here.
keywords: CouchSurfing, hospitality club, free hospitality, sociology, tourism, internet, gift exchange, gift exchange trust, free, couch surfing, modern society, structure, free values, free culture, sociology, sociology of tourism, socjologia turystyki, wymiana darów, struktura społeczeństwa, warm showers, pasporta servo, servas, BeWelcome, home exchange, homeshare, hospex, hospitality exchange, open couchsurfing, opencouchsurfing, OLPC, L/GHEI, gościnność, intimate tourism ...

The aim of this essay is to outline and analyze milestones in the history of the Internet. As technology advances, it presents new societal and ethical challenges. Section II concerns the formative years (1957-1984).  The early Internet was devised and implemented in American research units, universities, and telecommunication companies that had vision and interest in cutting-edge research. Section III discusses the entry of the Internet into the commercial phase (1984-1989). It was facilitated by the upgrading of backbone links, the writing of new software programs and the growing number of interconnected international networks. Section IV concerns the massive expansion of the Internet into a global network during the 1990s when business and personal computers with different operating systems joined the universal network. Section V discusses the instant and growing success of social networking -- sites that enable Netusers to share information, photos, private journals, hobbies and personal as well as commercial interests with networks of mutual friends and colleagues.

Les hackers et autres bidouilleurs développent souvent un goût précoce pour l'informatique et les usages détournés des dispositifs numériques. Ce travail s'appuie sur une enquête ethnographique au sein d'hackerspaces, ainsi que des entretiens avec des étudiants et professionnels de l'informatique impliqués dans le « monde hacker ». La fréquentation des hackerspaces leur permet de pro-longer leur passion pour ces pratiques et d'y trouver des ressources appuis divers. Cet article se propose d'ouvrir des pistes de réflexion sur la socialisation des hackers, en questionnant les différences générationnelles ainsi que les multiples manières d'articuler exigences professionnelles et investissement au sein du hackerspace.
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Starting in adolescence, hackers develop an interest in computing and diverting the use of digital apparatus. What connections, complementarities, or tensions, exist between one’s hacking activities and professional life? For the purpose of this research work, an ethnographic survey was conducted in French hackerspaces – together with interviews of students and computer experts involved in the “hacker culture”. Their socialization within these practices is nurtured through hackerspaces, giving them access to a variety of supports. Building on the analysis of singular courses, this contribution aims at raising questions on hacker socialization and on the means of harmonisation between occupational requirements and hackerspace activities.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show the limits of a-hierarchical organization in the Wikimedia movement governance model. Wikimedia governance, as well as the dynamic transformations it is currently undergoing, remains to be covered by the literature on organization and management studies; yet, they exemplify the problems with the " organization of the future, " which is highly idealized throughout the management literature.

Design/methodology/approach – The research design relies on an ethnographic, long-term, participative study of the Wikipedia community at large. The methods used rely mainly on discourse analysis and interviews. The study benefits from the unique participant immersion of the researcher (who spent six years participating in the studied community, making over five edits each day on average, and being elected to several positions of highest trust within the organization).

Findings – The findings show that the open, participative, and democratic character of the organization, which in theory is oriented toward sustainable solidarity, as well as the semi-anonymous character of some of the members' identities, makes the community more empowered yet more belligerent. Also, the entirely open and flat governance model makes it more difficult to establish a stable leadership consensus.

Research limitations/implications – Research is limited due to its methodological design, as it relies on in-depth qualitative case studies, rather than wider analysis. Further quantitative research is needed to confirm the findings on a bigger scale and in other open collaboration organizations. Practical implications – The findings show that participative organizational design, especially in open collaboration projects, have adverse effects in leading to overly confrontational and quarrelsome organizational culture, which not only makes decision making more difficult, but also deters people less used to debating and conflict.

Social implications – The social implications of the findings suggest that even in highly democratized structures, some minimal forms of leadership, and governance are useful to facilitate the decision-making processes.

Originality/value – This paper extends the understanding of organizational dynamics and governance in open collaboration organizations, and exposes the shortcomings of this model, which are an inevitable trade-off for its indisputable benefits.


Dariusz Jemielniak , (2016) "Wikimedia movement governance: the limits of a-hierarchical organization", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 29 Iss: 3, pp.361 - 378

The author gives an assessment of the influence of technologic innovations (personal computers, smart phones, Internet) on the build-up of the culture of innovative thinking and on conditions of promotion of other innovations.
Using sociological theory the author investigates the everyday interactions between human and technologies.
The objective of the study is to reveal common features of perception of innovations by those who routinized the use of smart phones, the Internet and by those who has not done that. The empirical basis of the study was secondary analysis of the data provided by the Public Opinion Foundation and devoted to the study of the attitudes of Russians towards innovations and their assessments of the innovative climate (2011, n=7500, statistical error does not exceed 1.7%). Formalized personal interview was used to collect primary sociological data.
The empirical data analysis showed that the routinization of the technological innovations has positive impact on the perception of innovations and innovative climate in general setting the stage for innovative thinking. People who are aware of innovations and perceive them positively use computers, smart phones and the Internet more often than common citizens.
This proves the relationship between the use of technologic innovations and their influence on the culture of innovative thinking.

Les hackers et autres bidouilleurs informatiques developpent souvent un gout pour l’informatique et les usages detournes des dispositifs numeriques. Ce travail s’appuie sur une enquete ethnographique au sein d’hackerspaces, ainsi que des entretiens avec des etudiants et professionnels de l’informatique impliques dans le « monde hacker ». La frequentation des hackerspaces leur permet de prolonger leur passion pour ces pratiques et d’y trouver des ressources appuis divers. Cet article se propose d’ouvrir des pistes de reflexion sur la socialisation des hackers, en questionnant les differences generationnelles ainsi que les multiples manieres d’articuler exigences professionnelles et investissement au sein du hackerspace.

This paper draws from a federally funded study on intelligent, real-time mass analysis of public life in Germany. It examines how large-scale monitoring data and learning algorithms are currently used in local police procedures – ranging from classic public place surveillance for the prevention of violence to smart face and gesture detection for manhunt purposes – in a country where privacy is a notorious public issue when it comes to digital technologies (e.g. Google Street View debate). Monitoring public life has been a topic of intensive discussion for quite some time. Driven by large-scale availability of new technologies and an increase of hardware networking, software possibilities are adding to legal and public monitoring discussions. Learning algorithms, for example, are used to operate smart cameras that (help) identify people, gestures and movements in public places. This paper provides insight into current developments and challenges of using algorithm-enabled monitoring ...

Treatments of new media in the Middle East seem often to stall on restricted views of communication as message-passing, variable reception by individuals, and averaging them as 'audience' or, in political terms, as 'public' opinion. Clearly, communication is more than this: it is reciprocal (though not necessarily symmetrical), contextually framed by situations and relationships, structured by features of language from genre to rights to speak, strategic, and in the case of the Internet it is continuously interactive-all of which comparisons to mass media do not render well. This article assembles three 'middle range' sociologies that capture typical interactivity of social actors with the Internet and through the Internet: communities of practice, the strength of weak ties, and the creation of 'textual authority' bring features of interaction with and interaction through the Internet's latest iteration as 'social media' into better view.

Estudio y análisis crítico de como es utilizada por un grupo de jóvenes la Net para pasar el tiempo libre en una biblioteca pública, y de cómo la experimentan, sienten y valoran. El presente artículo explora el tema considerando que la adolescencia es un período de la vida donde la manera de pasar el tiempo libre sirve para explorar capacidades relacionales, emocionales y cognitivas; y para crear y consolidar formas de identidad individual y grupal en procesos de socialización que, en gran parte, se conforman como preparación para la vida adulta cercana.