Choose at least two of our internet authors (Terranova’s Wikipedia: An Info-Communist Manifesto and Firer-Blaess & Fuchs’ Free Labor Producing Culture for the Digital Economy)

Choose at least two of our internet authors (Terranova’s Wikipedia: An Info-Communist Manifesto and Firer-Blaess & Fuchs’ Free Labor Producing Culture for the Digital Economy)

Infocommunism & Wikipedia and Collective Minds

In their work Wikipedia: An Info-communist Manifesto, the authors, Christina Fuchs and Sylvain Firer-Blaess, principally examine Wikipedia’s political economy. Specifically, info-communism and Wikipedia form the fundamental theme of the exposition. The authors, in their work, explore the lengths to which Wikipedia embraces the info-communist mode of production in complete disregard of the prevalent capitalist market within which it exists. In the book Free Labor: Producing Culture for the Digital Economy, the author, Tiziana Terranova, examines a raft of issues. However, she is specifically interested in the collective idea of the digital economy. She particularly examines the manner in which the internet “connects to the autonomist “social factory”” (Terranova: 34). The main ideas as presented in the above-mentioned works could be interrogated via the lenses of Stephen Gudeman’s high relationship societies and high-market societies as expounded in his work Anthropology and Economy.

Christina Fuchs and Sylvain Firer-Blaess posited that the mode of production of Wikipedia resembles Marx’s and Engel’s conception of communism. Similarly, the impacts of the society as well as the influences of “exploitation” and “inequality” that are synonymous with capitalism affect this mode of production (Fuchs and Fire-Blaess: 88). The contrasts as evidenced in the above points are analogous to the contrasts that Gudeman offers in his work. According to an empirical analysis of the same, there is a sequence of contrasts predicated upon paired binaries of the market and the house on one hand, as well as the self-interested and the mutual on the other one. Indeed, the analogy regarding the house being to mutuality like the market is to self-interest plays a central role in Gudeman’s work. In comparison to Fuchs’ and Fire-Blaess’ work, there is a similarity between the two. In the high-relationship societies and high-market societies, Gudeman avers that “In high market economies, their imbalance and separation undermine the viability of the house economy on which markets paradoxically depend.” (Gudeman: 3). This connection between competitive markets and house economy is akin to the one presented by Fuchs and Fire-Blaess who argue that whilst Wikipedia is a semiautonomous society, it is still dependent on the society for it to achieve its purposes. Perhaps the influence of exploitation and inequality on Wikipedia best compares to the connection between the influence of mutuality and self-interest in the two economies. Indeed, it could be argued that self-interest and mutuality as presented by Gudeman are similar, in spirit, to exploitation and inequality.

According to Gudeman, there are community and house spheres, both of which are at the fore of the market spheres of metafinance, finance, and commerce, and the house segment of the economy. In the house economy societies, also known as “high-relationship societies”, the aspect of mutuality plays a fundamental role in influencing action. Such a relationship is not different from the info-communism mode of production that Wikipedia employs. In the info-communist production “both the relations of production and the productive forces are fully socialized—they are based on common ownership of the means of production and collaborative work.” (Fuchs and Fire-Blaisse: 90). Therefore, the examination of infocommunist mode of production as demonstrated by Fuchs and Fire-Blaisse can occur via the prism of Gudeman’s exploration of the house economy.

In an interrogation of Terranova’s work, she recapitulates the notion of digital economy by proffering the standpoint that it gives a coordinated approach of collective intelligence, which promotes satisfaction via work. She maintains that “the internet’s collective intelligence encompass the work of writing/reading/managing and participating in mailin lists/Web sites/chatlines” (Terranova: 42). As a consequence, it is not ” a free-floating postindustrial utopia, but in full mutually consisting interaction with late capitalism, especially… global venture capital” (Terranova: 43). She further contends that whether one is talking about the collective mind or hive mind, the internet offers greater collective potential, flexibility and reactiveness. According to her, the cyberutopian, cyberlibertarian interpretation is consistent with one of “general intellect” which vouches for autonomy. She then goes ahead and offers the conflict herein by stating that whereas companies might attempt to extricate value from the collective labor mind, Marxists would like it to remain as a liberatory project. This again goes back to the aspects of mutualism and self-interest as found in Gudeman’s work. Indeed, just like Gudeman, Terranova’s take on collective mind appears to be pegged on concepts of Marxism and communism. The company, in a classic high market societies’ fashion, is only interested in furthering its own objectives by exploiting the collective mind of the labor force. In the company’s case, only its self-interest matters and it achieves this by using the collective mind of its internet-savvy workforce. The same thing happens in high-market societies wherein self-interest is the crucial motive. However, the Marxists desire to use the collective mind of the labor forced in a liberatory way. In this manner, all the parties to the interaction will benefit and there will be no feelings of inequality. However, just like in collective mind labor, such desires are not achievable since “the market realm dominates the house economy ideologically and through material practice” (Gudeman: 3).

Creative Writing Paper

Write carefully crafted a short essay (Max 840 words long)

Font: Times New Roman

Size: 12

1. Use Office/Word; run its word count command and put this number down at

the end of each essay. It’s important not to go either under or over the word

limit.

2. Mark absolutely clearly which essay prompts you are selecting, either by noting

the number at the opening of each response, or by typing out the question

itself. (Do not include this question in your word count however.)

Important tips as you draft your responses:

1. Use specific examples/evidence drawn from the readings to substantiate your

points in each response.

2. Dive into answering the prompt; no need for intro and conclusion paragraphs.

Remember this is a short answer response, not an actual essay.

3. When citing the course readings, use this simple in-text format: (Gudeman: 21;

or, Mauss: 48). No need to include Works Cited or Bibliography.

4. Be prudent in your use of quotations. Where possible, paraphrase and cite as

above. Save quotations for specially stressing a point you are already making

yourself in your own prose. In other words, it is best to use quotes to underline

your own logic, rather than to take a step for you in the logic of your essay.

(TurnItIn is enabled and which catch such plagiarism).

Prompt:

Choose at least two of our internet authors (Terranova’s Wikipedia: An Info-Communist Manifesto and Firer-Blaess & Fuchs’ Free Labor Producing Culture for the Digital Economy) and discuss their main ideas(“Collective minds” and “Info-communism & Wikipedia”) using Stephen Gudeman’s contrast between high relationship societies and high market societies.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• The is a great resource