Digital Labor The Internet as Playground and Factory

Lisa Nakamura is the Director of the Asian American Studies Program, Professor in the Institute of Communication Research and Media Studies program, and Professor of Asian American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet (2008) and Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity and Identity on the Internet (2002), and she is coeditor of Race in Cyberspace (2000) and Race After the Internet (2011). She has published articles in PMLA, Cinema Journal, Women’s Review of Books, Camera Obscura, and the Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies. Her research focuses on race and gender in online social spaces such as massively multiplayer online role-playing games, and she is currently investigating the racializaton of labor in transnational contexts and avatarial operations in a postracial world.

Andrew Ross is a Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. He is a contributor to The Nation, the Village Voice, New York Times, and Artforum, and he is the author of many books, including, most recently, Bird on Fire: Lessons from the World’s Least Sustainable City; Nice Work If You Can Get It: Life and Labor in Precarious Times; Fast Boat to China—Lessons from Shanghai; Low Pay, High Profile: The Global Push for Fair Labor; No-Collar: The Humane Workplace and Its Hidden Costs; and The Celebration Chronicles: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Property Value in Disney’s New Town.

Ned Rossiter is an Australian media theorist and author of Organized Networks: Media Theory, Creative Labour, New Institutions (2006). He was based in Perth, Melbourne, Ulster, Beijing, Shanghai, and Ningbo before taking up an appointment as Professor of Communication in 2011 in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at the University of Western Sydney, where he is also a member of the Institute for Culture and Society. Rossiter is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Creative Industries, Beida (Peking) University. He is a coresearcher on Transit Labour: Circuits, Regions, Borders (www.transitlabour.asia).

Trebor Scholz is an artist, writer, catalyst, and chair of the conference series The Politics of Digital Culture at The New School in New York City, where he is an Associate Professor of Culture and Media. His forthcoming monograph with Polity Press ofers a history of the social web and its Orwellian economies. In 2011, he coauthored (with Laura Y. Liu) From Mobile Playgrounds to Sweatshop City. Scholz is the editor of two collections of essays, Learning Through Digital Media (2011), and a volume on digital labor (2013). He coedited the Situated Technologies series of nine books and The Art of Free Cooperation (2007). Recent book chapters include “Facebook as Playground and Factory,” and “Cheaper by the Dozen: An Introduction to Crowdsourcing.” He also founded the Institute for Distributed Creativity, which is widely known for its online discussions of critical network culture. Scholz holds a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. He chaired seven major conferences including the MobilityShifts summit in 2011. www.digitallabor.org.

Tiziana Terranova is Associate Professor in the Sociology of Communications at the Dipartimento di Scienze Umane e Sociali, Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale.” Her research interests lie in the area of the culture, science, technology, and political economy of new media. She is the author of Corpi Nella Rete (1996), Network Culture: Politics for the Information Age (2004), and numerous essays on new media published in journals such as Derive e Approdi, New Formations, Ctheory, Angelaki, Social Text, Theory Culture and Society, and Transversal. She is a member of the editorial board of the journal Studi Culturali (Il Mulino); associate editor of the journal Theory, Culture and Society; and a member of the Italian free university network UniNomade (www.uninomade.org). She occasionally also writes on matters of new media for the Italian newspaper Il Manifesto.

McKenzie Wark is the author of A Hacker Manifesto (2004), Gamer Theory (2007), and various other works. He is Professor of Culture and Media at Eugene Lang College, The New School for Liberal Arts. www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKenzie\_Wark.

Soenke Zehle is Lecturer in Media Art and Design and has a long-time involvement in the collaborative conceptualization and implementation of transnational net.cultural art and research projects. Soenke is director of XMLab—Experimental Media Lab at the Academy of Fine Arts Saar, Ö Saarbrücken, Germany. For more information on her projects and publications, see www.xmlab.org.

Index

actor-network theory 60
Acxiom 18
Adorno, Theodor 63–4
advertising 127, 217
aesthetics 121–4
afect 112–16
afinity groups 100
Agamben, Giorgio 139–41
algorithms 233–5
alienation: of capital 59; digital 154–61
alternative economies 22
Amazon 19, 79; see also Mechanical Turk
America Online 33, 37, 48, 106
Andrejevic, Dean 5, 212
Anglo-American cultural theory 34
animism 65
Anonymous 233–4
Apache 48
apparatus 168; photographic 170; quantum character of 171
Appirio 160
apprenticeship 24
Arab Spring 54, 232–3
ARPANET 35
art: avant-garde 144; cinema 133
Asia, workshops of 28
Asians, dehumanization of 196
Associated Media 14, 27
attention economy 13, 214
audience, commodification of 2–3, 217
automaton 82–5
autonomists 33, 40–1, 44
autopoiesis 114
avatar 199–200
Aytes, Ayhan 5
Babbage, Charles 86–7
Barbrook, Richard 35–8, 46, 49
“Bartleby” 131
Baudrillard, Jean 139–40, 174
Bauwens, Michel 7
Baym, Nancy 153
behavior market vendors 18
Beller, Jonathan 3, 6
benefit-driven institutions 208–9
biopolitical capitalism 63
biosphere-friendly production 209
Bitcoin 234
blogs 5, 127–9

body 114–16 Boltanski, Luc 221 bourgeoisie 69, 139–40, 173 Buck-Morss, Susan 132–3 Buden, Boris 227–8 Burnett, Robert 153 calculating machine 86–7 capital: accumulation of 4, 26, 199, 215–19; alienation of 59; avatarial 199; circulation of 216; failures of 64; labor truce with 26, 69; as man 178; netarchical 208; peer-to-peer sharing and 8; social 18–19; writing and 167 capitalism: biopolitical 63; as class society 216; communicative 138; crisis of 208–9; expansion of 152; organizing against 21–2, 179; origins of 171; value extraction in 50 captcha 79–80 Castells, Manuel 92 Castronova, Edward 188–9, 199 Césaire, Aimé 178 Chaitlin, Gregory 119 Chapaev 133 cheating, in MMOs 188 chess 81, 85–6 Chess Player Automaton 81–4 China 189–90, 192 cinema 3, 132–5 city, sentient 235 civil liberties 4 class: capitalism and 216; consciousness, on social networks
6; hacker 71; knowledge 39–42; ownership 155; vectoral
69–71; wage labor and 217; web and 215–20 click signals 18 Clough, Patricia 4 Club Cultures (Thornton) 101 co-belonging 140–1 code 233 cognitive labor 91–2, 207 cognitive surplus 17 cognitive worker 93 cold civil war 70 Cold War 136, 198, 230 collective identity 138 collective intelligence 42–5 collectivity, suspicion of 140 commodification 171, 221; of audience 2–3, 217; of communication 89 commodity: dematerialization of 70; ephemeral 45–50; fan action on 100; profit generation from 216; recombinant 46 commons: communication and 221; creation of 208; free labor and 53; hacker embrace of 21; peer production oriented to
208–9; privatization and commodification of 221; slippage with 226

communication: commodification of 89; commons and 221;
pleasures of 107
Communications Workers of America (CWA) 15
communicative capitalism 138
communism 220–2
consciousness 6, 27
consumer 25, 104
consumption, spectacular 142
content, production of 19, 218–19
content farm 14
control society 120
convenience, politics of 139
Convergence Culture (Jenkins) 8, 193
cooperation 21
COPS 22
copyfight 27
copygift 72
copyleft 72
copyright 72, 110
COSCO 234
cosmopolis 58, 63
Crabgrass 7
craft guilds 75
Craigslist 7–8
Crawford, Matthew 24
creative expression 2
creative industry 21
creative resistance 7
creativity, industrialization of 21
crowd 61–7, 134
crowdsourcing 21, 88–9; of content production 19, 219; as
neoliberal exception apparatus 90–3
cubism 144
Cubitt, Sean 4
The Cult of the Amateur (Keen) 98
cultural imperialism 38
cultural labor 38–9
cultural theory 34
culture: algorithmic 233; centrality of 227; fan 101; free 72;
hybridization 38; public access 22; taste 101; see also
subcultural movements
currency, peer-to-peer 234
CWA see Communications Workers of America
cyberlibertarians 42
cybernetics 168
cyberprotest 22
cyborg 200
“Cyborg Manifesto” (Haraway) 34
Cygnus 49
database economy 62
data mining 16, 151–2
Dean, Jodi 5, 211–12
Debray, Regis 175
De Kosnik, Abigail 5
Deleuze, Gilles 114, 120
Demand Media 14, 27
democracy: foreclosure of 176; participatory 212, 215;
spectacles of 7; virtual worlds and 192
Denning, Michael 26
deprivation 155
Derrida, Jacques 60
De Soto, Hernando 59
determinism, technological 22
Diaspora 7, 222
digital alienation 154–61
digital economy 35–9; masculine labor in 48; morality and 52;
updating in 105; user participation in 52
The Digital Economy (Tapscott) 37
digitality 171–2
digital labor 15, 79
digital media: backlash against 33; as facilitators 16;
glamorization of 33; infrastructure of 157; political
economy of 225; social movements and 3
digitization 6, 168, 177
disciplinary society 137
Discipline and Punish (Foucault) 82
discourse 172; demotion of 166, 176; racial 194–6, 198;
scientific 87
Discourse on Colonialism (Césaire) 178
distributed labor 20
distributed workplaces 20–2
docility 83
do-it-yourself economy 30
domesticity, idealized 135
domination, informatics of 34
donation, of labor 21
Dreamworld and Catastrophe (Buck-Morss) 132
Dyson, Esther 155
economy: alternative 22; attention 13, 214; database 62; do
it-yourself 30; free 46; of Internet 46, 50; new 35;
participatory 212; political 58–61, 225; server 198, 200;
see also digital economy; gift economy
Eisenstein, Sergei 132
e-lance operations 20
end-user license agreement 156, 194
Enlightenment 83, 86–7
entertainment industry 23
entertainment unions 22–3
environmentalism 60
environmental sustainability 209–10
Enzensberger, Hans Magnus 173–4
ephemeral commodities 45–50
epistemic changes 178
essentialism 228

Everquest 187
exegesis 176
exploitation: free labor and 107, 151–4; of gullibility 158; internships as 25; of labor 1; Marxist understanding of 154; on Mechanical Turk 91; monitoring and 161–2; on networks 152; ownership and 155–6; pleasure and 153; self 21, 25, 107
Facebook 2; participation and 212–13; politics on 213; revenue of 17; separation by 157
factory, social 25, 33–4, 52, 74
factory labor 30, 135
false consciousness 27
fan(s) 5, 98; commodities and 100; compensation of 109–10; customization by 102; as ideal consumers 104; identities of 104–5; ideology of 104; labor of 99; object relationship with 100, 103; organization of 109; volunteerism 108–9
fan culture 101
Fan Cultures (Hills) 103
fandom: as free labor 99; insanity and 98; pseudonymity and 108; social dimension of 102
feminism 135, 217
feminization, of work 24, 30
film 3, 132–5
financialization 6, 229
flash mobs 138–9
Flusser, Vilém 87–8, 168–71
Fordism 28, 70
Foucault, Michel 58, 82–3, 88, 120, 165, 176–7
Foxconn 28–9, 220
Fox networks 22
“Fragment on Machines” (Marx) 44, 59
free culture 72
free economy 46
free labor 4; availability of 16; commons and 53; ephemeral commodities and 45–50; exploitation and 107, 151–4; fandom as 99; in online communities 106; solidarity and 209; see also internships
Freelancers Union 15
freelance writers 13–14
free markets 22
Freud, Sigmund 142
Fuchs, Christian 7
future, algorithmic 233–5
Galloway, Alexander 2
game 6, 194, 201; see also massively multiplayer online game
gamification 73–4
Gastarbeiter (guest worker) 5, 92
gender 24, 127–8
general intellect 26, 44, 225–7
generative technology 232
Gibson, William 70
gift 72

gift economy 36–8; in MUDs 191; Netscape and 49
Gilroy, Paul 34–5
globality 234
gold farmers 188; economic need of 195; killing of 195, 199;
machinima against 195; race and 189–90, 192–3, 197; as
virtual migrants 190, 192
Google: AdSense 110; participation and 212–13; revenue of 17
Gou, Terry 29
A Grammar of the Multitude (Virno) 60
Great Recession 15, 17, 24
Greece 234
Grundrisse (Marx) 44
guest worker 5, 92
hacker 73; class of 71; ethics of 21
Haraway, Donna 34
Hardt, Michael 90, 136–8, 152
Harman, Graham 122
Harold, Christine 72
“Heat-Death” (Parisi and Terranova) 114
Hebdige, Dick 99–100
Hesmondhalgh, David 154–5
Hills, Matt 102–5
historicity, waning of 181
HIT see human intelligence task
hive mind 42–3
Hollywood 18, 133
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. 28
Horvarth, John 49
Howe, Jef 88–9
HTML 149
Hufington, Ariana 13
Hufington Post 4, 13–14
human authentication tool 79
human exception 65
human intelligence task (HIT) 79
humanism 43
The Human Use of Human Beings (Wiener) 168
IBM 29
identity: choice of 137; collective 138; fan 104–5; national
132; non- 65; symbolic 137
ideology 104, 174, 211
immaterial labor 39–42, 89, 152
immigration 92
imperialism, cultural 38
India 26
individual 182
informatics 34, 182
insanity 98
integrative production 29
intellect: endeavor of 75; general 26, 44, 225–7; mass 45
intellectual history 181
intellectual property 27

International Gaming Exchange 188, 195
Internet: commercialization of 46; communist 220–2; economy of 46, 50; monitoring on 149–50; new humanism with 43; organization of 42–3; participatory 211; political potential of 39; self-expression on 18; social life on 1; studies of 211; sustainability of 47, 106; users of 39–40; see also web
Internet as Playground and Factory 1
internships 4, 17, 23–5
Ipeirotis, Panos 80
Jenkins, Henry 8, 98, 102–3, 193
job gratification 21
Keen, Andrew 98
Kelly, Kevin 42–3
Kempelen, Wolfgang von 81–4
knowledge class 39–42
knowledge workers 37, 39–40
labor: capital truce with 26, 69; cognitive 91–2, 207; creative expression and 2; cultural 38–9; digital 15, 79; distributed 20; donation of 21; exploitation of 1; factory 30, 135; of fans 99; immaterial 39–42, 89, 152; living 29; Marxist analysis of 34; masculine understanding of 48; play- 26; in prison 16; productivity of 231; token-wage 16; unwaged 2, 26; wage 217; see also free labor
labor arbitrage 91–2
labor movement 16
labor-power, collapse of 231
labor theory of value 26
LambdaMOO 190
language 143, 175–6
Lazzarato, Maurizio 2, 40–1
Lehman, Chris 27
Leibniz, Gottfried 85
letters to the editor 19
Levy, Pierre 42–3
Lewis, Andrew 18
liberalism 197–8, 228
Lineage II 187–8
literary agents 15
living labor 29
logistics 230–1
Lovink, Geert 21
Lynch, Liam 130
machines: calculating 86–7; chess-playing 81; Marx on 44, 59; responsive 2
machinima 193–6; as breakthrough medium 200; as game extension 194; racial discourse in 194–6, 198
McLuhan, Marshall 173
McRobbie, Angela 27, 30
Mago, Rajesh 91–2
man, as capital 178
management, of knowledge workers 37
manufacturers, high tech 28 Margulis, Lynn 118
market: behavior 18; Foucault on 120; free 22
marketing: feedback-based 158; viral 73; web 2.0 as 211 Marx, Karl 2, 16, 29, 59, 215–18; on alienation 158; on exploitation 154; on labor analysis 34; on labor theory of value 26; on machines 44, 59
Marxist feminism 217
massively multiplayer online game (MMO): avatars in 191; cheating in 188; democratic potential of 192; as global medium 189; race in 188, 191; social norms on 198; see also gold farmers
massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) 187
mass media 132, 134
Massumi, Brian 114
mathematics 119
matter 112–14, 155
Mayr, Otto 85
Mazzarella, William 89
measure 116–24
Mechanical Turk 19–20, 79–81; demographics of 80–1; exploitation on 91
media 115–16; address 132; critiques of 174–5; history of 175; mass 132, 134; old 22–3; response to 174; social 211, 218; studies of 115; technologies 116–21; see also digital media Media Manifestos (Debray) 175
mediator, vanishing 172
mediology 175
medium, as message 173
Melville, Herman 131
microtasks 20
milieu 120–1
mind: hive 42–3; as spiritual automaton 85
minstrel shows 200
MMO see massively multiplayer online game
MMORPG see massively multiplayer online role-playing game mobile devices 225
mobile workers 29–30
monitoring 149–50, 161–2
MOO see MUD, object oriented morality 52
moral panic 108
movement: labor 16; Occupy 54, 73, 232–3; open source 48; peer-to-peer 66; social 3; see also subcultural movements MUD see multi-user dungeon
MUD, object oriented (MOO) 190
multitude 90
multi-user dungeon (MUD) 190–1
MySpace 127
myth making 18
Nadeem, Shehzad 92
Nakamura, Lisa 6
name recognition 19