such collaborative organization requires nobody to be in charge, thereby flattening out hierarchies and eliminating filters set by power structures. Again, in the case of auction sites, individual nodes in the network mode of production (i.e., individual users) “police themselves . . . The chief method of ensuring fairness is a system of user-generated ratings. These billion feedback comments can work wonders” (Kelly 2005).
The grassroots character afforded by the Web empowers “the people”— the little men, the individuals—rather than (or better yet vis-à-vis) large institutions such as states and corporations. Therefore, this new network production entails, according to Kelly, a radical break from the old economy and even from some of the fundamental tenets of capitalism. First and foremost, the new world of production, brought about by the Web, is “manufactured by users, not corporate interests.” What’s more, users’ behavior does not follow the capitalist rationality of profit maximization. Speaking of blogs, Kelly points out that “these user-created channels make no sense economically.” The “time, energy, and resources” involved in bringing about such products are “coming from . . . the audience” rather than from the traditional wage laborer. In addition, the fruits of such labor are also increasingly noncommercial. All of these examples, says Kelly, crystallize into a “gift economy,” where “all [is] given away for free” (Kelly 2005).
The network mode of production undermines traditional conceptions of production and consumption. It “permits easy modification and reuse, and thus promotes consumers into producers,” transforming many endeavors “from spectator art to participatory democracy.” The Web allows the transformation of passive audiences into content providers and of consumers into producers; it “assumes participation, not mere consumption,” and ushers in a “great shift from audience to participants.” The Web allows the sort of engagement with the world that follows the logic of interaction. It involves “deep enthusiasm for making things, for interacting more deeply than just choosing options . . . This impulse for participation has upended the economy and is steadily turning the sphere of social networking—smart mobs, hive minds, and collaborative action—into the main event” (Kelly 2005).
Network production, according to this, is not only postcapitalist; by breaking the dichotomy of production/consumption and producer/consumer, it is postproletariat and postconsumerist as well. Thanks to the Web, creativity, enthusiasm, cooperation, and personal expression are reintroduced into the spheres of production and consumption from which they have been traditionally excluded and revitalize them. With network production, individuals are no longer simply peons of a consumerist mass society; they regain their agency and independence through production and consumption. Kelly predicts that the Web will bring further democratization by toppling a mass homogenized society and providing greater opportunities for individuals to be creative and self-expressive. “The Web,” he says, “continues to evolve from a world ruled by mass media and mass audiences to one ruled by messy media and messy participation . . . In the near future, everyone alive will (on average) write a song, author a book, make a video, craft a weblog, and code a program” (Kelly 2005).
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Media and New Capitalism in the Digital Age