part 1/2 

Partypeeps2000.com Connection:

Researching the participatory affordances of a growing online community

June 28 2004

By Quinsy Gario 0208914

Participatory Culture 200300575

Table of Contents:

__________________________________________________________________________________

Introduction                                        03

Let’s get connected                             03

PP2G: 3 outta 4 ain’t bad                     04

Special, Alert and Events                      05

PP2G: an image and experiential brand  06

The PP2G organizational culture            07

PP2G Connection                                 08

Viral dissemination gone awry                09

Survey results                                      09

Conclusion                                           10

Notes                                                  11

References                                          12

Introduction

When looking at the affordances of a website various uses to which a website can lend itself can be found.[i] One of those uses is the way how the Internet is taking away geographical borders. With no geographical space between two people the Internet makes it easier to communicate to one another and to be in the same space as each other at any given moment.[ii]

Online communities are one of the forms that websites can lend themselves to in this regard. They can become the portal to social networks that aren’t geographically defined and thus connect people who have more in common than just their geographic locale. [iii] In this paper one such community will be discussed in depth in the manner that it uses this affordance of cyberspace for financial goals in an interesting manner.

The affordances of this space will be explored in the commercial realm. With the commercial realm reference is made to the manner in which commercial corporations use cyberspace. The relationship between corporations and cyberspace is an interesting one. More and more companies are showcasing their products and emphasizing the experience of using the product and not so much the product itself.[iv] One interesting example was the revolutionary commercial campaign for the Clairol Herbal Essences shampoo line. The product itself wasn’t the captivating element, but the effect of using the product on the user.

The emphasis placed on the experience can also be seen in the manner in which online communities are formed. They are formed based on communal experiences and/or preferences. This in turn is also the defining trademark of that particular community. In this paper the community of partygoers called PartyPeeps2000.com will be discussed and also the interesting phenomenon PP2G Connection. PP2G Connection is the label under which a series of events have been organized by the site to bring together its members. The interesting and smart choice was to choose a type of event that connected the members of the community in the first place: a party. And it’s not just any other party that is advertised for on the site itself, but it is a party whereby the community members have a say. The members are given the opportunity to vote on various organizational elements of the party.

This can be seen as a part of the advertising campaign for the party itself but it also can be seen as one of the most apparent participatory affordances of online communities. It is only logical to ask the members of a community what they want. This will also be explored more in detail in this paper. A survey conducted amongst some members resulted in some pretty interesting findings about the participatory affordance. And this coupled with slight insights about the organization of the parties themselves might lend itself to a whole new school of thought about the commercially exploitable participatory affordances of online communities.

Let’s get Connected

An online community of partygoers wouldn’t be a community of partygoers if a party wasn’t organized for the whole community. A get together you could say to see people who you probably would never meet in real life and talk to on the community. Or that’s the idea that comes across. Since its emergence on the urban party scene in The Netherlands 4 years ago the site has grown to such enormous proportions that at every urban party at least half of the people walking around are members of PartyPeeps2000.com or have at least heard of it.[v] This is in turn because of the promotion for urban parties and events on the site itself. So it tells you where the next big thing will be held. Senior member and part of the editorial team of the site Dark_child1 mentions that this was also the primary function of the site when it first emerged. And now the next big thing being promoted on the site is PP2G Connection.

But before exploring the organization around PP2G Connection it would be better to look at the PartyPeeps2000.com site itself (referred to in the remaining paper as PP2G) and the ways that it makes itself definable as a community. Robert Plant informally defines online communities as

[…] a collective group of entities, individuals or organizations that come together either temporarily or permanently through an electronic medium to interact in a common problem or interest space.[vi]

It’s a form of social interaction that anybody can take part in if they’re connected to the Internet. In his text Plant explores the various models of online communities and they can be categorized in four categories.[vii] The first model is the transaction-orientated community where the community does not address the social needs of the members and is solely based around the selling and buying of goods or services. The only communication that occurs between the members is for giving or getting information about goods or services. This is pure about business. The second model is the community of interest. In this model social interaction is the primary goal of the community. People come together to talk about their interests. Member interaction is also stimulated by the accompaniment of a chatroom, message and discussion board. Users are at the steering wheel of the content of the site. The third model is the fantasy community where the members are given the opportunity to create alternate personalities. In these communities members create environments, story lines and interact with each other. And the fourth model is the relationship community. In this community members are connected through a shared intense experience. Members are drawn to the site either to help others or get helped themselves in coping with the experience, for example victims of armed robberies, or to simply bond with others. It’s noted that these are simply models and that communities usually overlap the various models.

PP2G: 3 outta 4 ain’t bad

Interesting though is that PP2G overlaps 3 of the 4 models in its current make up. Even though the site is based on the real world because members come across each other at various events, the creation of an alter ego is possible and thus also giving the community fantasy model characteristics. Maybe alter ego is too harsh of a word, but the creation of an other-self is possible. When signing up to the site members are allowed to fill in any name that they want. This is the first step in setting up an online personality. Once signed up the members are given a page to present themselves to the other members in any fashion that they choose. This is the second step and the third step is the near total immersion in the urban partygoer lifestyle that is presented on the site. Only in the news-section a bond with reality is shown. The pictures on the site are real, but at the same time upholding the identities and attitudes that the members themselves create. In Gail E. Hawisher text about women’s use of online images to represent themselves and communicate to others this also explored.[viii] Hawisher writes that in the presentation of women online women can choose to re-create or create their identities online simply through the images that they use to represent themselves. But the main focus of this paper is on the other two models of communities that PP2G also represents.

            The other two models are those of the interest community and that of the transaction community.  As has already been stated PP2G is a community centered around urban parties in The Netherlands. Actual factual information about the origins of the site couldn’t be obtained from the site administrators,[ix] but an interview with Dark_child1 did give the necessary information.[x] It had indeed been started as an interest community about parties and other events. The user interaction wasn’t as broad as it is now, but was pretty extensive. Users could interact with each other on the message boards and leave comments on each other’s pages. That was the way how members would communicated with each other, now in addition to being able to place comments by pages members can also note each other. This in turn facilitates more private communication between members and thus also brings the members closer to each other and that in turn feeds the community spirit.

            Another main attraction point of the site is its function as a central point of information dispersal for urban parties in The Netherlands parties. And here the other community model becomes clear, the transaction model. The site is an intermediary between U.S. Madhouse Clothing Stores and clientele, the members. They can buy clothes via the site and receive membership discounts. U.S. Madhouse is in the PP2G logo on the site so it seems safe to assume that it is the main sponsor (or that the site used to be the site of US Madhouse and was turned into a community of urban party goers when the administrators noticed the interest in the clothes waning and the interest in the parties and membership itself growing) of the site next to NXS Internet that gives it technical support and alerts the administrators of when thinks go awry.[xi] The other official sponsors will be discussed later. The distinction is made between official sponsors who are constant and the parties that are advertised for on the site in the lay-out itself. The lay-out is initially made up of four columns with each column and position in the column having its own importance because that is what makes them visible for the viewer of the site. The intermediary model not only stems from the US Madhouse clothing store brand appearing in the logo of the site but also from the ability to sound off on and about a particular event. By every part of the site members can post their opinion about the event and thus influence other members’ opinion about that event. In the survey conducted for this paper when asked if polls conducted by site were a useful part of the site the member Camigirl answers:

“Ja, als ik in het onderwerp geïnteresseerd ben wel. Je kan kijken wat andere mensen ervan vinden en je kan je eigen mening uitten.”

She implicitly implies that the participation of other members influence her participation in the event or on commenting on the event on the site. Most of the time members not knowingly give each other information over the event and according to Hagel and Armstrong this is one of the characteristics of a transaction-oriented community. And this site actually has an interesting balance of transaction-oriented and interest community characteristics because the message boards connected to the events will be used for social interaction but this very social interaction is also giving tacit information to other members. There is usually a small group of people who fervently comment on events and these provide enough information for the lurkers on the community.[xii]

Special, Alert and Events

On the community information is given on various topics ranging from everyday news, for example that The Netherlands is currently through to the semifinals of the European Cup, to music album releases, the latest release that is showcased on the site is that of the self titled album from the duo Nina Skye, to events. The showcasing of events is done in three different sections on the site. First there is the Special section, which seems to scream out priority but then again because the posters for the events appear after each other members aren’t really given the opportunity to properly view the event that is displayed. But there is also a link beneath the flyer so that further viewing is made possible. Then there is the Alert section. This section is also marked by a red box in which the posters are positioned according to date, the earliest events are positioned on top followed by the later events. And partitioned by a web poll from the Alert section there is the Events section. This section is marked by a dark green box in which the posters are also positioned according to date.

            The differences between the three sections isn’t only the positioning on the main page of the site itself but also in the information that is given at first glace. By Special section there is an equal amount of information given as by the Alert section. But by flashing the posters after each other it attracts the attention of the viewer. Because the event flashes by the viewer gets just enough time to click on the link and find out more about the event like for example the date, the place and how many people may have posted on the message board. It forces an investment of time from the viewer in finding out if he’ll be interested in the event and as such makes the pay off when he or she is interested all the more satisfying. The Alert section gives the same amount of information about the Special section, only it’s all the way at the right of the screen, further removed from the menu of the site. And the posters are stationary and don’t appear after each other but are chronologically positioned. And then there is the Events section where basically the events showcased in the other two sections are also positioned. Only this section is placed below the web polls which are in turn positioned below the Alert section. And by this section you can see how many people have commented on the event.

            The reasoning behind this differentiation isn’t clear, but it probably has to do with the price tag that comes along with advertising on the site. The email address to which questions about advertising on the site can be mailed is fittingly sales@partypeeps2000.com. This reaffirms the commercial nature of the site. Where at first glance the visitor might be fooled in thinking that the party organizers whose parties are showcased are affiliated with the site the visitor later comes to understand that the organizers affiliation is usually simple of a monetary nature. The ones that pay more get more exposure and that is pretty logical. It’s also interesting that the web-design team of PP2G has found a way of differentiating in essence homogeneous products simply through the positioning of the sections on the main page and the colors used for the different sections. This is basically what Don Slater means when he mentions that advertisers are the ones that create the differences between products.[xiii] PP2G is simultaneously showcasing homogeneous products to the very market that they helped set up but is despite their homogeneous nature creating differences between them through their advertising techniques.

Interesting is also that once you move away from the main page and are navigating through the site the Special section is no longer there and only the last mentioned event in the Alert section is on the right side of the page followed by the complete Events section below it. So in the end all the events showcased in the Events section on the main page get more exposure while this advertising space probably costs less than being showcased in the Alerts section on the main page. This assumption is based on the fact that all the events showcased in the Special and Alert sections are based in the Events section, just the presentation/showcasing of the event on various sections of the site has been upgraded to a Special and Alert section event.

PP2G: an image and experiential brand

Besides catering to party promoters and the U.S. Madhouse clothing store line PP2G also caters to its members. Next to services as the space given to members to display their personality, be it based on actual personality traits or not, the internal mail system, also known as the note system, and the forums the promotion team of the site also goes to the various events that are advertised. The PP2G Promo Team as they’re called go to the various events and takes pictures and hand out flyers of the site. These pictures can in turn be found in the PP2G photo’s section and member can also add them to their personal albums at the bottom of their page. The ability to add the pictures to their personal albums gives the service a psychological meaning and thus creates a bond between the member and the site.

            This bonding with the site is inline with Tybout and Carpenter’s definition of a brand:

[…] a brand is a name or some symbol or mark that is associated with a product or service and to which buyers attach psychological meanings.[xiv]

In their text they examine how corporations raise the value of their brand. A brand is essence made up of a series of associations. The product or service is associated in the minds of the buyers or in this case the members with a specific experience, class or lifestyle.[xv] The association is what gives the name, the brand, its meaning. Tybout and Carpenter use a quote that shows the distinction between a product and a brand:

A product is something that is made in a factory: a brand is something that is bought by the customer. A product can be copied by a competitor; a brand is unique. A brand can be quickly outdated; a successful brand is timeless.

Tybout and Carpenter make a distinction between three different types of brands. The functional brand, where the functionality of the product is central, the image brand, where image that is projected by using the product stands central, and the experiential brand, which focuses on the feeling of the consumer as he or she uses the product. [xvi]

            How the community was branded is open to debate, but Dark_child1 said that he joined because of the experience that was offered. Acquaintances of his started the site and invited him to join. Now the image brand is more prevalent in initiating the membership of the newer members. Something which is pretty disturbing for the first and second generation of users who are used to sharing experiences and are now bombarded with people who reply strangely to innocent notes[xvii]. Now people join to show that they’re PP2G. Now they join for the pictures and the page that they can create or for more information over parties. The experience factor is being pushed to the background and the image, the presentation of the person, that is portrayed is the most visible aspect of a page. Now many pages are littered with pictures of expensive bags, shoes, cars, watches or lyrics of particular songs. All these are image laden.

            An interesting example of image and experience laden advertising is the promotional campaign for the club Touché in Utrecht. It was the former Club Genuwine which due to very disappointing attendance closed its doors and sold the club. The new owners however found a way to hike up there attendance by attaching the Goodfellas DJ-Crew to the establishment. This particular DJ crew is well-known and liked in Utrecht and elsewhere and by making them the resident DJ’s on Thursday, Friday and Saturday the automatically gained a better image. Now the club is synonymous with the image of the Goodfellas and their DJ’ing style and that is only in the clubs benefit. The Goodfellas DJ-Crew itself is, just like most other DJ crews, an experiential brand.[xviii] The product, a good night of partying, the environment, wherever they’re playing, and the services, their DJ’ing, combine to create “[…] a temporary multisensory encounter[…] with the brand”.[xix]

In the beginning there were about 400 members he mentions, but now it has grown well beyond that.[xx] The photos that are taken can be attributed to this growth. Just like CU2.nl where members are given webspace to display pictures of themselves here too they have the ability to do so. And they can do so with pictures from elsewhere or from the site itself where they’re stored. Tybout and Carpenter further define experiential brands as brands that are co-created by the brand and the consumer at the time of consumption and, consequently, it is unique and highly personal. The personal nature of the pictures take at parties can be highlighted by the following example. A member was at a party and took a picture with her sister and at the moment she experienced the picture of something solely about her and her sister. But on later viewing she saw that a guy in the background was also posing for the picture. This in turn disturbed this particular member and she augmented the picture in such a fashion that she removed the guy that was originally in the background from the picture and thus regained the personal connection with the portrayal of that moment.[xxi]

The PP2G organizational culture

The addition of the image brand to the experiential brand that it carried before may also be the result of a change in organization culture of the PP2G administrators. [xxii] Küng-Shankleman discusses organization culture and gives Schein’s definition of culture as the most suitable definition:

Culture is a pattern of shared basic assumptions that a group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore is taught to new members of the group as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems.[xxiii]

Küng-Shankleman goes on to write that a culture is perpetuated because the experiences of ‘older’ members and they way how they deal with situations they’re confronted with develop into set systems of effective ways of dealing with situations. These effective ways are in turn learnt to the new members. They accept them as tacit codes of conduct and as such perpetuate the culture.[xxiv] In turn culture is made out of three layers according to Schein, the top layer that is visible, artefacts, the officially expressed strategies, goals and philosophies that are not an accurate representation of the organization culture of the group, the espoused values, and the basic assumptions, the as normal-experienced views of members of the product and organization which act al the ultimate source of values and rivers of actions. The basic assumptions are implicit and never fully acknowledged by the members but they give us an insight into why things happen in the organization. On the one hand they protect the organization they also inhibit the organization member’s ability to think outside of the box.[xxv]

            Organization member are now thinking less outside the box and are trying to keep the status quo of the site. This can be seen in the introduction of forum rules and the unwillingness to even reply to emails regarding this essay. The picture painted by Dark_child1 is one of a community where innovation was heralded and people constantly came up with new ideas to make the site better and more innovative. But since the site is now established and it has become “the platform for all people who love urban”  [xxvi] activities tampering with it might seem dangerous because it could alienate members who have become accustomed to the site its current condition. Because culture “[…]plays an important role in determining firstly how environmental developments are perceived by members of an organization and secondly how member of the organization react o the strategies designed to respond to those environmental developments.”[xxvii] Another interesting action by a forum-administrator in this regard was the displacement of a forum topic that was started in regard to this paper to completely different forum than it was intended for. He also sent a note saying:

******************************

pp2gforumadmin wrote on: 6/27/2004 4:13:30 PM

******************************

Hi Fry

Your topic with the subject: Onderzoek over PP2G Connection posted on Fri 25 Jun 2004 15:10 was moved from the forum PP2G Connection to the forum General.

We would appreciate it if you could post your future topics in the appropiate [sic] forums.

You can find your topic here.

ForumAdmin

            ******************************

---

[i] Hutchby (2001) p. 13 – 33

[ii] Dodge & Kitchin (2001) p. 35 - 64

[iii] ibidem

[iv] Mommaas (2000)

[v] Interview with member Dark_child1 memberpage: http://www.partypeeps2000.com/asp/AccountInfo.asp?nAccountID=344 

Posted at 08:26 pm by rg3Gario
Find it interesting enough?

final paper 3

Part 2/2

PP2G Connection

PP2G Connection as mentioned in the introduction is the label under which the site administrators organize events for the members of the community. Connection is a fitting name for the events because the members are given the opportunity to ‘connect’. Dark_child1 has been to all the PP2G Connection Parties except the last Pre-Valentinesday one held on the 6^th of February. But he can remember that they started as a place where members who frequently communicated but whose geographical locale could be as diverse as Groningen or Maastricht. These members would then for the first time meet each other at a common interest: a party. But what makes these events interesting for research is the perceived participation level of the members.

            PP2G Connection Parties are marketed as community events and as such the community should have a say in the organization of the party. This participation in the organization of the parties is enabled through polls that are placed on the site. But a problem with a menus is that a member has to go looking for the polls to vote. On the main page the polls, which usually aren’t that interesting because they fail to make a significantly interesting connection to other events, are hidden between the Alert section and the Events section. If somebody wants to know “what’s poppin’ tonight” they will scan that section and scroll passed the poll. Several members who took part in the survey said that they did not know about the polls. The visibility is thus an issue that should be dealt with.

            Further the polls give members only partial participatory abilities. They might give the appearance that members are actually deciding in important matters but they are not in tune with reality. Issues like location(, The PowerZone in Amsterdam which typifies the site’s emphasize on events organized in the Randstad)[i], theme, price, time & date are predetermined. In itself its logical that such organizational elements are already determined for the members because if else it would be a chaos, but the emphasis is place on the participation of the members on the fringe topics like DJ’s, flyer-design and models for on the flyer for the new PP2G Connection. And the most basic of questions how can the voting process be legitimized? Are the members really voting?

 

Viral dissemination gone awry

For this paper a research was conducted amongst members of the community. The manner in which the survey was conducted limited its own reach. First a link was placed on my own page and a note was sent to various members on my friend-list in the hope that it would have a viral marketing effect in a ramified network.[ii] That they would in turn tell their friends and so on and so on. But that did not happen. First of all the link wasn’t working. Hotlinking from my site personal site is not allowed and I had uploaded the survey as a Microsoft Word Document file without placing a link towards it in a typical html file. The first slip up.

            When this was fixed after several members had informed me about it right away after sending them the link it can be assumed that all the people who received the link and had clicked on it had lost trust in the notes with links in them from me. This is derived from the fact that from all the people who the original link was sent to only a handful filled in the survey  when the link was fixed and a subsequent note was sent informing them that the link had been repaired. Another complication regarding this approach is all the activity that was expected by the participants. They had to click on the link, then they would meet a blank page with another link to a Microsoft Word Document which takes ages to open. Then they had to copy the contents of the file to another file and answer the questions and mail to a Solis-mail account. A bit too much work.

            After receiving the first three emails a change was made in the survey itself. The first three emails showed what was wrong with the survey and should be changed to obtain the information that was pertinent for this research. So it was changed but the same structure was kept in place; the link and my email address remained on the page. When it dawned that it all could be done much easier the survey itself was placed on the page and notes were sent to people asking them to visit the page and note back with their answers. This approach proved to be more fruitful but it still could have conducted in a better fashion. The survey should have been noted to people and asking them to fill it out then they wouldn’t have to go to my page to get to survey. Still asking too much of the participants. Earlier in the essay a posting in the forum for PP2G Connection related topics was mentioned. It was placed only to be removed two days later because it hadn’t been placed in the appropriate forum according to the forum administrators.

            It all started out as interesting experiment in itself, using viral marketing and the friend list to disseminate the survey among the members of the community. But several errors in judgment were made and things had to be corrected and thus it lost its punch and although several people inquired about it again and were noted again with the new instructions the attention for it waned they ultimately didn’t fill in the survey.

 

Survey results

As is mentioned above there were 2 surveys were made. The in hindsight beta version and the ultimate version which most people answered and has given more insight into the member’s psyche. Despite not using their answers in the final tally, the first two members who mailed their answers to the beta version, [edit] DeaDaimaris, JiDa & Miss}}R{{ , played an integral part in this research by giving me insights into how the original survey could better cater to my questions about the participation of members with the organization around PP2G Connection.

            Appendix A will include the final survey and appendix B will include the raw research findings. Time has been a determining factor in this research and it hasn’t been on my side. Refined analysis of the raw data will have to wait and will be posted as appendix C at a later date.

 

Conclusion

PP2G is an interesting community that has grown from a small grassroots organization of  people who loved to go to urban events and share the experience they had with each other to being the “[…]largest Ducth Urban related website in The Netherlands […] with more than 11.000.000 pageviews [a month] and generates more than 1 Terabyte (1.000 GB) of datatraffic, which is supplied by Nxs Internet.”[iii] Accompanying the growth in numbers has been a change in how community members communicate with each other. Dark_child1 noted that when he first joined, roughly a year after the launch of the site the note system wasn’t in place. And he himself didn’t check the forums either until about a year ago somebody mentioned that there were pretty interesting discussions held in the forums.

            The communication between members may have been stimulated and furthered with the inception of the note-system the mentality of the community has changed in his opinion. Members react differently now to notes from strangers. Something which could also be one of the reasons why there was so little response to the notes that were sent about the survey and research and posting on the forum about it. PP2G as a brand has changed from an experiential brand to a image brand where people are now showcasing what and who they want to be. People are now using the pages to create an identity to coincide with the image brand that they perceive the site to be. Everything has to be flashy and the freshest of the fresh[iv] or the newest of the new. It has become a site where you showcase who you want to be or are and the sharing element of experiences is being pushed in the background.

            This slow disappearance of the experience side of parties where the PP2G Promo team is present taking pictures, and in essence the pictures themselves, can be attributed to a change in organizational culture. Whereas in the beginning it seems that the administrators were more in tune with the members it seems like they have now adopted a non-egalitarian view over the community. Dark_child1 mentioned that now after 3 years he’s seen it at all. The once so innovative trademark of the site has been replaced by a protection of the status quo. The organizational culture that has developed over the years is standing in the way of innovation and change of the community itself. Other things may have been developed but they haven’t dealt with what brought together the original members, the sharing of the experience of a good party. The things that have been developed like live stream video for the upcoming PP2G Connection Party and shout-outs that will be aired on TV station The Box are all nice and cute, but are simply emphasizing the showcasing of parties and not the experience itself.

            And by maintaining this now seemingly concrete and established status quo it is also unlikely that the PP2G Connection Parties, that prize themselves on being for the community an by the community, allow the same kind of participation as in the beginning of the site. As the community has grown the participatory affordances of the site have also been diminished. You can still participate in the discussions, but even there because of the regulation you aren’t allowed to participate to the fullest of your wishes. This non-profit, open, regulated online community has is in essence feigned participatory affordances by organizing parties such as PP2G Connection all in the name of commercial exploitation.         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

N

---

[i] When asked if he would vote on polls in the future Jay_C answered:

”Ik denk het wel, want ik vond het leuk om te doen.
Echter vind ik het wel jammer dat er geen polls over feesten die in het zuiden van Nederland worden gehouden. PP2G is heel randstad-gericht (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den haag). Het zou leuk zijn om informatie over andere feesten te krijgen.“

[ii] Boase  & Wellman (2001)

[iii] http://www.partypeeps2000.com/asp/Nxs.asp visited Monday June 28th 2004

[iii] This is not a reference to the member Fresh

 

 

 

References:

______________________________________________________________________________

 

Boase, J. & B. Wellman, A plague of viruses: biological, computer and marketing (Current Sociology: draf, 2001)

 

Dodge, M. & R. Kitchin, Mapping Cyberspace, (London: Routledge, 2001) p. 35 – 64

 

Hawisher, G. E., ‘Constructing our identities through online images’ in: Journal of adolescent and adult literacy (March 2000) vol. 43 issue 6, p. 544-553

 

Hutchby, I., Conversation and Techonlogy – from the telephone to the internet, (Polity Press: 2001) p. 13-33

 

Kannan, P. K., A. M. Chang & A. B. Whinston, ‘Electronic Communities in E-business: Their Roles and Issues’ in: Information Systems Frontiers (2000) vol. 1 issue 4, p. 415-426

 

Küng-Shankleman, L., Inside the BBC or CNN: managing media organizations (London: Routledge, 2000) p 7-22

 

Mommaas, H.,’De culturele industrie in het tijdperk van de netwerkeconomie’ in: Boekmancahier 43 (March 2000)

 

Plant, R., ‘Online Communities’ in: Technology in Society (January 2004) vol. 26 issue 1, p. 51-65

 

Preece, J., B. Nonnecke & D. Andrews, ‘The top five reasons for lurking: improving community experiences for everyone’ in: Computers in Human Behavior (March 2004) vol. 20 issue 2, p. 201-223

 

Slater, D., ‘Capturing markets from the economists’ in: Du Gay, P & M. Pryke (ed.), Cultural Economy (London: Sage, 2002)

 

Tybout, A. M. & G. S. Carpenter, ‘Creating and Managing Brands’ in: Iacobucci, D. (ed.), Kellogg On Marketing (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2001)

 

Posted at 08:23 pm by rg3Gario
Find it interesting enough?

final paper 2

Appendix A:
Final Survey

Onderzoek naar participatie PP2G leden bij de organisatie van de PP2G Connection Parties

Universiteit Utrecht 2004,

Participatory Culture

Quinsy Gario

 

 

 

1. Wat is je PP2G nickname

 

2. Sinds wanneer ben je lid van PP2G en waarom ben je lid geworden?

 

3. Hieronder staat een lijst met de verschillende diensten van PP2G. 
• de verschillende fora
• het note-systeem
• de foto sectie
• de informatievoorziening over feesten
• de informatievoorziening over nieuwe muziek albums
• de kleding winkel
• de vriendenlijst en eigen page
• de chatrooms

 

Rangschik ze van het meest belangrijk naar het minst belangrijk voor jou.

 

 

J.l. 6 februari hield PP2G een PP2G Connection feest in de Powerzone voor haar leden. Het feest is via verschillende kanalen gepromoot, waaronder de PP2G website. Op de website stonden er banners, advertenties, en was de mogelijkheid gegeven aan de leden om zelf deel te nemen in de beslissingsproces omtrent de organisatie. Op de PP2G site werden er polls gestart over onderwerpen als flyer-ontwerp en DJ’s die op die avond zouden draaien.

 

 

4. Wist jij van de PP2G 6 februari Connection feest voordat het plaatsvond?

 

5. Zo ja, hoe heb je erover gehoord:

-          via vrienden in notes en emails

-          via vrienden buiten de site om

-          via advertentie op de site

-          via promotie op straat in de vorm van flyers

-          via polls op de site over de Connection feest

 

Vermeld de promotiemiddel dat jou het eerst over het feest heeft ingelicht hier:

 

6. Zo nee, zijn er externe redenen waarom dit het geval zou kunnen zijn? Na het beantwoorden van deze vraag ga dan door met vraag 8.

 

7. Wat vond je van de promotie campagne voor de 6 februari PP2G Connection Party?

 

-          informatief

-          overdondenderend

-          leuk om mee te beslissen

-          heb er niet veel van meegekregen

 

8. Heb je meegestemd voor de uiteindelijke flyer ontwerp en de DJ’s die destijds zouden draaien? Waarom wel of waarom niet?

 

9. Zo ja, is jouw keus ook de uiteindelijk keus geworden?

 

10. Zal je in het vervolg weer deelnemen aan zulke polls over Connection feesten? Waarom wel of waarom niet?

 

11. Hoe kijk je nu naar de organisatoren van de PP2G Connection feesten?

Posted at 08:20 pm by rg3Gario
It's interesting enough (1)

final paper

Appendix B

Raw Data survey (untranslated)

 

 

1.Camigirly

2. Sinds 27 oktober 2002, waarom weet ik echt niet meer

3. de informatievoorziening over feesten, de foto sectie, het note-systeem, de vriendenlijst en eigen page, de verschillende fora, de chatrooms, de informatievoorziening over nieuwe muziek albums, de kleding winkel

4. ja

5. via vrienden in notes en emails

6. nvt

7. informatief

8. Nee, heb dat nergens zien staan. Wel van die flyers maar het boeit me niet echt wat voorn flyer het nou gaat worden.

9. nvt.

10. Misschien over die Dj’s wel, ik heb natuurlijk ook bepaalde voorkeur.

11. Ja, als ik in het onderwerp geïnteresseerd ben wel. Je kan kijken wat andere mensen ervan vinden en je kan je eigen mening uitten.

 

1. Christine

2. 14 mei 2003. Ik heb ooit eerder een page gehad, Tropical_lady, had die page gesloten. IK had er niet zoveel zin in. Later heb ik uit verveling een nieuwe page geopend.

3. Forum, Note sys., Eigen page, Foto sectie, Info over feesten, Info over muziek, Kleding winkel, chatrooms

4. ja,

5. Op de site/forum

6. nvt

7. Leuk om mee te beslissen

8. Nee omdat ik toch niet in NL ben. Ook al was ik in NL had ik niet gestemd, want ik heb toch geen verstand van die dj’s en zo. Ik heb wel gestemd voor het model.

9. Niet de model van mijn keus

10. Weet niet. Denk het wel waarom niet

11. Het is wel een leuk idee.

 

1. youandi
2. Sinds 8 augustus 2003, m'n zus had t voor me aangemaakt t leek me wel leuk...
3. -het note systeem, de informatievevoorzieningen over feesten, de fotosectie, de vriendenlijst en eigen page, de informatievevoorzieningen over nieuwe muziek albums, de verschillende for a, de kledingwinkel, de chatrooms
4. JA
5. via vrienden in notes en e-mails +
via vrieden buite de site om +
via promotie op straat in de vorm van flyers +
via polls op de site over de connection feest.
6. nvt
7. overdonenderend
8. nee dat wist ik niet.
9. nvt
10. Als ik het zou weten had ik het wel gedaan...
11. goed georganiseerd.

 

1.Djigga_licious
2.02 december 2003
3.-de informatievoorziening over feesten, het note-systeem, de informatievoorziening over nieuwe muziek albums, de foto sectie, de kleding winkel, de vriendenlijst en eigen page, de chatrooms, de verschillende fora
4.ja
5.-via vrienden buiten de site om
6.nvt
7.-heb er niet veel van meegekregen
8.nee waarom wel? wist niet eens hihi wist alleen dat er een feest was.
9.nvt dus
10.tsja misschien mang, is eigenlijk wel lauw....
11. gewoon, ik kijk niet, ik zie wel

 

1.sharday
2.12mei 2003ik had nix te doen
3. het note-systeem, de foto sectie, de informatievoorziening over feesten, de informatievoorziening over nieuwe muziek albums, de kleding winkel, de vriendenlijst en eigen page, de chatrooms, de verschillende fora

4. nee

5. nvt

6.ja
7.wist er nix van
8.ja had weer eens nix te doen
9.nee
10.als die party me trekt
11.zelfde als altijd

 

1. Zlacana
2. 18 februari 2004, omdat ik het leuk vond dat je je eigen page aan mocht passen hoe je wilde
en pp2g zelf me aansprak omdat het iets voor jongeren is. Ze weten waar jongeren zich mee bezig houden en organiseren leuke dingen voor ze.
3. Mijn volgorde: de vriendenlijst en eigen page, het note-systeem, de informatievoorziening over feesten, de informatievoorziening over nieuwe muziek albums, de foto sectie, de kleding winkel, de verschillende fora, de chatrooms
4. Nee
5. -
6. Ik kwam niet zo vaak op pp2g daarvoor
7. -
8. Nee, want ik was er niet van op de hoogte en hield me er niet mee bezig
9. -
10. -
11. -

 

1.xChillyx
2.Vanaf 13 maart 2004 , omdat ik het wel leuk vond.. om ergens je creativiteit enzo neer te zetten ...
3. Vrienden en page, info van feesten, info van muziek, Note systeem, Foto sectie, Kledingwinkel, Versch. For a, Chatrooms

4. Nee
5. nvt

6. Niet echt

7. nvt
8. Nee, omdat ik er niet van wist
9. nvt

10. Ik weet het niet ..
11. Vind het wel leuk dat ze die dingen organiseren .. er zijn wel altijd mensen die er intresse in hebben ..

 

 

1. JAY_C

2. 6 mei 2002

3. het note-systeem, de vriendenlijst en eigen page, de foto sectie, de informatievoorziening over feesten, de informatievoorziening over nieuwe muziek albums, de kleding winkel

de verschillende fora, de chatrooms

4. Ja ik heb enkele banners gezien en dit is een goede vorm van promotie. Er moet wel rekening worden gehouden met de hoeveelheid promotiemateriaal in verband met irritaties die opgewekt kunnen worden.

5. via advertenties op de site + via polls op de site: De advertenties op de site hebben mij het meest ingelicht. Het gebruik van notes en E-mails zou ik afraden, omdat niet iedereen geïnteresseerd is in deze feesten. Je kunt als pp2g-gebruiker niet om de banners heen, dus de geïnteresseerde mensen zullen hierop klikken voor verdere informatie.

6. nvt

7. Volgens mij was dat de poll voor de flyer die gemaakt mocht worden door een pp2g-gebruiker…
Als dat het geval is, vond ik het leuk om mee te beslissen. Dit is een goede manier om dichter bij de pp2g-gebruikers te komen, wat leidt tot meer bezoekers van het feest.

8. Ow daar had ik het al over bij vraag 7…
JA, ik had mee gestemd, omdat ik het een leuk initiatief vond. Zulke acties zijn zeker voor herhaling vatbaar.

9. kan ’t niet meer herinneren

10. Ik denk het wel, want ik vond het leuk om te doen.
Echter vind ik het wel jammer dat er geen polls over feesten die in het zuiden van Nederland worden gehouden. PP2G is heel randstad-gericht (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den haag). Het zou leuk zijn om informatie over andere feesten te krijgen.

11. Ja een poll is heel nuttig,  omdat je zelf de keuze hebt om hieraan mee te doen. Dit is alleen maar ten goede van de uitslag,  want dit sluit “valse” antwoorden uit.

 

1. cantona
2. Friday 25 June 2004 [12^th of April 2004]
3.
4.ja ik wist het wel
5.via polls op de site over de Connection feest
6.
7.heb er niet veel van meegekregen
8.nee heb ik niet gedaan
9.
10.nou dat weet ik niet misschien ik vind het niet zo super om zopveel dj`s op 1 avond
11.tja het is meestal het zelfdeen ik ben ook een tijd niet geweest naar een feest dat vermeld stond op pp2g

           

1. Shaun-D
2. mm dec. denk ik (staat op men page ) en waarom mm omdat ik op school niks te doen had + foto's Kijken
3. -het note-systeem, de foto sectie, de vriendenlijst en eigen page, de informatievoorziening over feesten, de informatievoorziening over nieuwe muziek albums, de kleding winkel, de verschillende fora , de chatrooms
4.hmm ja
5. -via vrienden buiten de site om
6. *
7. huhm was wel leuk
8.-leuk om mee te beslissen
9. nee
10. *
11. zoals ik al eerder dee vind het niet speciaal ofzo

Posted at 08:00 pm by rg3Gario
Find it interesting enough?

Tuesday, June 08, 2004

Q&A Cultural Economy: chapter 3

here's the second one in the (long-awaited) series:

Capturing the market from the economist from Don Slater prompted the following question: Slater says that advertisers create and use the definitions of markets and products and don't simply choose out of the variations that are available (p. 68), how does this idea co-relate to the symbolic analysts that Allen refers to in his text? Are advertisers symbolic analysts who 'solve, identify, and broker problems by manipulating symbols' and thereby create the need for a product, the competitors and the market itself (the problem here being the lack of the aforementioned entities) or are they simply psychologists who use their trade for 'economic' purposes?

You'd be inclined to think of the latter, 'cause to be a salesman you also have to be some kind of psychologist. I recently got a new job (for me) at a callcenter, so the psychology behind selling has been explained to me. 'It's a warzone out there and you've gotta make sure you convince the customer to buy your product 'cause it's better than that other product' has been said to. 'what other product?', i replied only to get a lecture from my supervisors. In advertising the differences between homogeneous products are highlighted and thereby creating advertisers 'create' the competitor. Look at the commercials for Tele2 (a telecomprovider here in Europe). There you constantly see a reminder of who the competitor is and why you should switch to Tele2, and thereby creating the need for the product. But by creating a need for product you are playing a psychological game with the potential customer. Everything's psychological so why should the psychology banner that it wears invite the negative connotation that Slater says it does? I think it's both.

but i'll come back on this point, got werkcollege now so i've gotta hurry onto class.

Posted at 02:56 pm by rg3Gario
Find it interesting enough?

interesting discovery...

so hey, like i said in my first post i'm doing three courses this blok. this one, participatory culture, america goes to the movies: the classical exploitation movies and virtueel reizen. and for virtueel reizen i just so happened to pick as a research subject the differences and similarities in the way how tv travelogues and weblog-travelogues show a representation of 'the other'. and as i was looking for literature about weblogs i came across this site:

http://mama.indstate.edu/users/bones/WhyIHateWebLogs.html

"There are so few reasons to keep a weblog, and so many of these are fucking stupid while so few of them are legitimately non-brainfucked. The problem of course, is people. In general, people are fucking stupid, so many of the things they do are fucking stupid."

i'd say have a look. i find it pretty funny 'cause this person does have some pretty interesting insights into the people who make weblogs. and i'm gonna put the statement of audience on this weblog 'cause i think it accurately displays the usage of a weblog in general (it may not be all that related to this course, 'cause these weblogs are made so that people visit them, but it sounds cool )

Posted at 01:18 pm by rg3Gario
It's interesting enough (1)

Sunday, June 06, 2004

Q&A Cultural Economy: chapter 2

it took awhile, i know, trust me i know, but i've finally got my Q&A's for the required texts from the book Cultural Economy. here's the first one in the series

Cultural Economies: the 'culturalization' of economic knowledge by John Allen prompted the question: if in the works of the writers that Allen discusses, Lash & Leadbeater among others, it is constantly visible that the writers can't seem to comprehend the usage of cultural, expressive and affective components of economies as stand alone elements that aren't secondary to alterior motives, how does Allen himself use cultural, expressive and affective literary forms in his text?

This question is ofcourse based on the wide spread 'hysteria' that was noticeable when the Q&A's about this text were supposed to be uploaded at the beginning of the course. Most of the people who read the text couldn't make head or tails from what Allen was writing about. I realize this is a media-study and not a literary study in which we disect texts, but it is pretty interesting to look at the way how Allen himself treats cultural, expressive and affective literary forms for his text.
In the acknowledgments for the book the editors write that the 'the chapters [are] derive[d] from a Workshop on Cultural Economy held at the open University in January 2000' (Du Gay & Pryke 2002, ix). So the backdrop for the language usage in the text is laid; now we know why he uses the academic jargon that he uses. But why go for the at times unfollowable (is that even a word) sentence structure? Why make an already pretty difficult subject matter even more uncomprehensible by cramming as much information into one sentence as literarilly justifiable? That's something i couldn't crasp, and as i read many of my fellow course-bloggers Q&A about this text it seems like between the lines you can find that questions in theirs Q&A's. In the text you can't find the reasoning behind the fixed and difficult sentences structer, because as you read the endnotes of the chapter you find a totally differing sentence structure. In the text Allen mentions the defintion of the Reich's 'symbolic analyst' (p.43) and also the notion of the 'cultural producer'. It seems like Allen himself in writing his text is showing us exactly what those descriptions entail by leaving us, the readers of the text, open to decypher the way how he himself has used the three symbolic functions that Cassirer attaches to the symbolic knowledges expression, representation and signification.

Once you take the time to read each sentence carefully and remembering what came before the comma you'll understand what Allen is writing about. And it's pretty interesting the way how he chose to that; by utilizing the, in my opinion, most dry method of writing he makes the usage, and in his case the absence, of cultural, expressive and affective literary forms pretty clear to the reader. But was this a clear choice?...Am i like the writers discussed in his text falling back on the assumption that such an esthetic literary choice was made consciously?...I think i am, but that's unavoidable; everybody wants to know the reasoning behind an esthetic choice even if there is none...

Posted at 07:10 pm by rg3Gario
Find it interesting enough?

Friday, May 28, 2004

Research Outline

my (conceptual) research outline:

what:
I will write a nota based on the the site www.partypeeps2000.com and the promotion of its last Partypeeps Connection party that was held February 6th 2004 in the Powerzone in Amsterdam. Partypeeps2000 is a online community of partygoers who can make up pages and talk about their going out experiences. It is also a site where a lot of Dutch urban parties are promoted and advertised for. Next to those parties, the site itself also organizes parties once every 4 months for its members to connecto to each other. Like i've mentioned above, their called 'Connection'.
I will be looking at the way the community spirit was used for the promotion of the event. with the 'community spirit' i'm refering to the way how every member of the partypeeps2000 community was encouraged to participate in the decision making proces over the content and the promotion of the party. My two main questions will be: how was this 'participatory' promotion campaign structure conceived and set-up and did it have the desired effect within and beyond the community?

why:
The pp2g site is the perfect example of the way how an internet community is used as the fertile ground for commercial advertising campaigns. Before i can realy show this statement to be true i will have to long into the history of the site and how it was first conceived. If it started out as a normal online community where people came together and talked about their exploits and it gradually turned into the ultimate mecca for the promotion of urban Dutch parties, then i will look into how companies came in touch with the site and made it what it is today. This is ofcourse an extension of what Castronova researched in his paper: On Virtual Economies. In that text Castronova sets out to show us that people are gradually transforming entertainment environments into work environments where 'real world' finances are generated. I will also be using Lessig's text Innovation from the Internet
But if it started out as a commercial entity, a place where party organisers and promoters could buy advertising space, then i will look into how the community 'effect' was achieved by the site designers and how the site was promoted in the beginning. This will show us how virtual environments with the characteristics of online communities are created simply for financial gains. The site itself has become a brandname and as such has a reputation of its own next to the parties that are promoted on the site. For this standpoint i will use the text by De Mooij, Dimensions of culture and Nixon's texts Re-imaging the ad agency: the cultural connotations of economic from the book Cultural Economy and Advertising and Commercial Culture.
In this section i've mentioned a couple of texts that correlated directly ot the points that i stated i wanted to explore further. But further down i will place a complete list of possible literature resources.

how:
I will conduct my research by following up on the following points:
- the organization of the Connection party
- the reasoning behind the choice to organize/advertise the parties this way
- the ticketsales/attendance of that particular party
- the impact of the organization method on the attendance (i will try to find information on other parties organized by the site that didn't utilize this method of organization and then place the information next to each other)
- interviews with community members on the way that they experience the participation in the decisionmaking over the content of the parties

(possible)literature list:
Castronova, On Virtual Economies
Hutchby, The Communicative Affordances
De Mooij, Dimensions of Culture
Nixon, Advertising and Commercial Culture
Nixon, Re-imaging the ad agency
Benkler, From Consumers to Users
Lessig, Innovations from the Internet
Wellman & Boase, A Plague of Viruses: biological, computer and marketing
Tybout & Carpenter, Creating and Managing Brands
Middelaar, On Logos and Grassroots

Posted at 03:01 pm by rg3Gario
Find it interesting enough?

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

falling behind...

i just noticed that i'm really falling behind. organizing VerpAKT is really eating up my time, this weekend i'm gonna do my best to finish all the required assignments, critical analysis of the rest of the texts of session 2 and the ones for session 4, up to now. hopefully this can be taken into consideration and i won't be heavily penalized for being late with uploading the assignments. because i was busy with some organizational tasks yesterday i couldn't make it to the werkcollege. heard that i missed William Urrichios talk. damn. but i'm gonna try my best. and if i don't make it for this weekend, i'm gonna make it for next week thursday <--- the day after VerpAKT! so i'll have a lot of time.

Posted at 10:36 am by rg3Gario
It's interesting enough (1)

Friday, May 07, 2004

Q&A session 2

enough of my personal crap, here are the Q&A to the texts from session 2. For this session we had to read chapter one Economic Perspectives from H. Vogels book Entertainment Industry Economics: a guide for financial analysis, from 2001 and E. Castronova's On Virtual Economies. And chapter 2 and 3 from Cultural Economy. Later on in the day i will post the rest of the Q&A's, now i've posted my Q&(partial)A on Castronova's text.

The question that i formulated for Castronova's text On Virtual Economies is: In the text Castronova talks about an increasing migration to virtual worlds like Everquest and the constraints that make games/puzzles so interesting for people. Will Castronova's idea of the puzzle of puzzles ultimately be the downfall of his digital migration?

In his text Castronova contends that people like games because they place constraints on them. But if more and more people are migrating to virtual worlds and leaving their Earthly responsibilities behind them to take up virtual ones won't that eventually also becomg tedious? After the virtual worlds have been conquered and people get settled in a daily routine, like they have in their Earthly lives won't they look for another escape?
It seems to me that Castronova is completely too wrapped up in the game culture to look at other virtual environments. And that is one of my main issues with his text. How can you make statements like: "Events in the virtual world can have an influence that extends well beyond the borders of the virtual world; relationships, incomes and even lives on Earth may be affected." (Castronova, 2003) if you base them solely on the research of a game world? He does say that the label 'game' should be irrelevant to the issue, but i think that if you make such a statement it should encompass all social forms that deal with the virtual, not just MUD games.

But i'll get back on this question later on, 'cause i feel that i'm not giving the right arguments.

edit: 1 juni 2004

Back to my qualm with Castronova's presupposition that people will not need another form of recreation than their virtual work-environments. Isn't that thinking too opmistically about this whole virtual revolution? Okay, he's got a point in saying that more and more social and economic activities has shifted its basis from the Earthly to the virtual. But he doesn't give a subsitute for the gap that will be left when in his opinion every Earthly event will take place in virtual realms. When people are start constituting 'play' for 'work' then 'play' will no long be 'play' anymore and they will go look for something that has nothing to do with their former 'play' and their current 'work'. Doesn't that mean that if that happens the virtual will lose what makes it essentially 'fun', the entertainment value because now there are concrete consequences attached to their virtual endeavours. I would think that people would simply revert and rediscover the 'simple' Earthly games for 'play'.  I mean look at the return of the bell-bottoms pants after a couple of decades of 'ultra-modern' fashion.

Posted at 02:56 pm by rg3Gario
Find it interesting enough?