{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"a31b1606-7526-4f42-a12d-1edcb41ff0e7","title":"DIGITAL LABOR THE INTERNET AS PLAYGROUND AND FACTORY","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9780415896948","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"a31b1606-7526-4f42-a12d-1edcb41ff0e7","id":"a31b1606-7526-4f42-a12d-1edcb41ff0e7","uuid":"a31b1606-7526-4f42-a12d-1edcb41ff0e7","title":"DIGITAL LABOR THE INTERNET AS PLAYGROUND AND FACTORY","normalized_title":"digitallabortheinternetasplaygroundandfactory","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9780415896948","isbns":["9780415896948","9780415896955","9780203145791"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":267,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/a31b1606-7526-4f42-a12d-1edcb41ff0e7","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/DIGITAL%20LABOR%20THE%20INTERNET%20AS%20PLAYGROUND%20AND%20FACTORY","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/a31b1606-7526-4f42-a12d-1edcb41ff0e7/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/a31b1606-7526-4f42-a12d-1edcb41ff0e7/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/a31b1606-7526-4f42-a12d-1edcb41ff0e7","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/a31b1606-7526-4f42-a12d-1edcb41ff0e7/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/a31b1606-7526-4f42-a12d-1edcb41ff0e7/search"},"page":{"printed_page":160,"pdf_page":167,"physical_index":167,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"13d21838acb8799e2b2b3486f13ff049c78fceeef9d1163bc8a2bda73b95027b"},"chapter":"DIGITAL LABOR","content":"In some cases, the obligation to network online is becoming institutionalized and recognized as a potential source of value. Consider, for example, the development of applications that allow employers to capitalize on contacts harvested from their employees' social networks. The press release for a company called Appirio, for example, outlines the triple value of employee social networking data as a resource for recruiting, sales, and marketing—all of this without having to pay employees extra for providing the data. Appirio's marketing application piggybacks on Facebook to increase the size of a company's “virtual account team” by leveraging relationships that employees might already have:\n\nThe employee can see if a friend has become a lead, bought a product, attended an event...etc. If the employee chooses they can contact their friend through Facebook to make a connection and ultimately help contribute to their company’s bottom line (and maybe even their own bonus!).25\n\nThe same data that can provide leads for potential hires and clients serve treble duty by providing data for targeted marketing appeals: “Based on a search of keywords in friend profiles, the application makes recommendations of friends who might be interested in the offer, which users can then choose to take action on.\"26 The application links data from the social networks of individual employees with a proprietary consumer relationship marketing database in order “to track leads, make follow-up offers, and report on campaign success to see how their viral campaigns stack up to other marketing programs.\"27\n\nThe future envisioned by such applications is one in which online activities serve as multiple sources of value for employers who seek to capture and monetize the value created by the after-work activities of their employees as well as by commercial entities that harvest detailed personal information online. There is double logic of appropriation at work in this scenario: private ownership of workplace resources and private ownership of communication resources are both used to extract value from activities that take place beyond the workplace. The type of concessions that employers can extract from employees is part of the ongoing struggle over wage labor contracts conditioned by asómmetric control of productive resources. Appirio envisions a future in which submission of one's social network to workplace priorities becomes one of the conditions of earning one's livelihood.\n\nIf, as Hesmondhalgh argues, the notion of exploitation is an explanatory concept as well as a historical and analótical one, it is tempting to note the way in which it helps account for the forms of anticipated productivity that characterize the digital economy. The value accruing to the privatization of network resources is, at least in part, dependent upon the ability to extract productive data from users—data that can serve as a resource for advertisers, employers, political campaigns, and policing. Unlike more material commodities, there is no clearly defined saturation point for the consumption of data—as long as automated systems can be developed for sorting and processing it. Individual humans may be limited in their ability to absorb data, but not databases. Nor is there a clear limit on the amount of information that can be extracted, which grows along with the opportunities for interaction, transaction, and communication—even as the cost of data collection continues to drop. It is the anticipated productivity of data collection and mining that serves as justification—at least in some quarters—for refusing to regulate it more aggressively. The threat from companies that prefer so-called self-regulation is that enhanced privacy legislation will put a check on the growing online economy. This threat was invoked by a privacy attorney who claimed that proposals to require websites to include a do-not-track option “may lead to the Internet economy—one of the few economic bright spots—being shackled.\"28\n\n160\n\nThe Violence of Participation","previous_page":159,"next_page":161}