While the digital discourse hails the lax, flexible, and ad hoc relations between employers and employees (exemplified in the formula “the strength of weak ties”; Howe 2006; emphasis mine), it suggests that network production actually further ties the relations between the company and worker. Proctor & Gamble’s Larry Huston says, “People mistake this [crowdsourcing] for outsourcing, which it most definitely is not . . . Outsourcing is when I hire someone to perform a service and they do it and that’s the end of the relationship. That’s not much different from the way employment has worked throughout the ages. We’re talking about bringingpeople infrom the outside and involving them in this broadly creative, collaborative process. That’s a whole new paradigm” (Howe 2006; emphasis mine).
Network Production
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