Author Nathan Schneider discusses how the internet can be a democratic medium by learning from governance legacies of the past. Topics include implicit feudalism in online communities, the need for platforms supporting accountability, digital power dynamics, blockchain in shared governance, and critical analysis of the crypto space.
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insights INSIGHT
Social Media and Political Power
Online tools enabled rapid mobilization but hindered lasting political power.
They lacked capacity-building features for organization and decision-making.
insights INSIGHT
Implicit Feudalism's Origins
Early online communities like BBSs established a precedent of centralized control.
The server owner held absolute power, shaping later platform governance.
insights INSIGHT
The Moderator's Dilemma
Online platforms often lack democratic governance mechanisms.
This forces moderators into hypocritical positions of power.
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I´m once again speaking with Nathan Schneider about his newly released book, Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life. In Governable Spaces, Nathan Schneider argues that the internet has been plagued by a phenomenon he calls “implicit feudalism”: a bias, both cultural and technical, for building communities as fiefdoms. The consequences of this arrangement matter far beyond online spaces themselves, as feudal defaults train us to give up on our communities’ democratic potential, inclining us to be more tolerant of autocratic tech CEOs and authoritarian tendencies among politicians. But online spaces could be sites of a creative, radical, and democratic renaissance. Using media archaeology, political theory, and participant observation, Schneider shows how the internet can learn from governance legacies of the past to become a more democratic medium, responsive and inventive unlike anything that has come before.
The book is freely available in digital format on Nathan´s website here.
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ICYMI I've written a book about, no surprise, blockchains through a left political framework! The title is Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix Itand is being published through Repeater Books, the publishing house started by Mark Fisher who’s work influenced me a lot in my thinking.
The book is officially published and you use this linktree to find where you can purchase the book based on your region / country.
The Blockchain Socialist