{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406","title":"Curation in the Age of Platform Capitalism  The Value of Selection, Narration, and Expertise in New Media Cultures","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9781032023007","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406","id":"d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406","uuid":"d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406","title":"Curation in the Age of Platform Capitalism  The Value of Selection, Narration, and Expertise in New Media Cultures","normalized_title":"curationintheageofplatformcapitalismthevalueofselectionnarrationandexpertiseinnewmediacultures","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9781032023007","isbns":["9781032023007","9781032023014","9781003182801"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":177,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Curation%20in%20the%20Age%20of%20Platform%20Capitalism%20%20The%20Value%20of%20Selection%2C%20Narration%2C%20and%20Expertise%20in%20New%20Media%20Cultures","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406/search"},"page":{"printed_page":57,"pdf_page":67,"physical_index":67,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"fdf927569c7960a14c135445866c656cdb46cdb56ee87693111b6ae995cb53af"},"chapter":"CURATION IN THE AGE OF PLATFORM CAPITALISM","content":"In the literature, the term is used similarly (though with less emphasis on its efects on cultural circulation): platform capitalism refers to a platformspecific capitalization and accumulation model based on the extraction of big data for commercial purposes and new types of market encounters between consumers and producers (Langley and Leyshon 2017: 13; Çalişkan and Callon, 2010: 14). Similar to a bazaar or a stock exchange, platforms serve as intermediaries where producers and consumers meet and encounter each other (Çalişkan and Callon, 2010). One of the innovations of the platform economy is that these encounters would regularly trade on previously dormant assets or noncommodified areas of life. Airbnb, for example, provides the technical means to mediate the economization of a previously noneconomized or less economized object, that is, short-term accommodation, by bringing together two-sided markets, the sellers—owners of houses etc.— and customers—usually tourists. Educational platforms, such as Coursera or Udemy, connect instructors who create and sell online on-demand courses with people who want to engage in distance learning. These platforms, as meeting places for producers and consumers, marketize new objects or activities, and in turn encourage micro-curating practices from the former, such as house owners or instructors.\n\nHowever, far from being a neutral space of encounter, the platforms are designed to capitalize on the platform-specific value ofered and generated through these interactions. What is, however, this platform-specific value, according to business literature? In their widely read manual for prospective platform entrepreneurs, titled Platform Revolution, Geofrey Parker, Marshall Alstyne, and Sangeet Choudary (2017: Ch. 6) suggest that platforms have to provide something valuable to users so that they spend time, attention, and trade on them. The most valuable services, according to the authors, include consumer access to the contents created on a platform (e.g., videos on YouTube), producer access to a community of potential buyers of services (e.g., clients on Uber), producer and consumer access to the tools that facilitate interaction (e.g., video editing tools in Tik-Tok), and producer and consumer access to the curation mechanisms which improve their interactions (e.g., recommendation algorithms in Spotify or Netflix that match the consumers’ taste with the producers’ content) (Parker, van Alstyne, and Choudary, 2017: Ch. 6). Insofar as these services manage to amass a base of interacting users, they turn the platforms to “sources of excess value” (Parker, van Alstyne, and Choudary, 2017: Ch. 6). This is the excess value the platform creates since these interactions would not exist without the platform (Parker, van Alstyne and Choudary, 2017: Ch. 6). If many users find the platform valuable and engage regularly with it, the platform’s benefits will also grow. This ideally then would become a self-generating cycle as platforms are subject to what in business literature is called positive network efects, which occur when “users derive utility from others joining the network” (Nieborg and Poell, 2018: 4278). For instance, the higher the search volume on Google the more accurate the search engine will become as the algorithm will improve, or the larger the number of Instagram followers for a user the better, as this user will expand their networks. Positive network efects occur when the users of a platform have an active interest in other users joining the platform as this increase will improve their platform activity (negative network efects, in contrast, occur when the larger the number of users of a product, the worst the product experience becomes, for example, excessive tourism in an area). In turn, the platform can monetize these efects or leverage them to appeal to advertisers or investors. This is the value that arises from user activity and has to be strategically cultivated by the business model of the platform.\n\nCurating and Platforms\n\n57","previous_page":56,"next_page":58}