201309 geo-linguistic dynamics virtual work liao IS1202 Malta

Geo-linguistic Dynamics of Virtual Work in Wikipedia projects and beyondCognitive Surplus and Social Mobilization Theory

Han-Teng Liao’s presentation for

September 29, 2013

Virtual Workor digital-net work (cf. paperwork)

29 September, 2013@hanteng

Technologies aside, (virtual) work is “linguistically constituted” and also “geographically configured”.

(Virtual) work thus depends on the geo-linguistic support system, including literacy and technology.

“Cognitive surplus” needed to be accounted linguistically and geographically

cf. surplus-labour vs necessary labour in Marxist theory

Social mobilization of (virtual) work Consider HSBC call center field trip in Malta


middle-range theory of virtual work

Accounting (and then transferring) “social mobilization surplus” or “cognitive surplus”

into potential “human resources” or labour forces


“Cognitive surplus” … visualizedMcCandless (2010) visualized Shirky (2010)’s idea

http://infobeautiful2.s3.amazonaws.com/goggle_boxes.png

http://infobeautiful2.s3.amazonaws.com/goggle_boxes.png

So how big is that “surplus”?


Wikipedia editing So if you take Wikipedia as a kind of

unit, all of Wikipedia, the whole project--every page, every edit, every talk page, every line of code, in every language that Wikipedia exists in--that represents something like the cumulation of 100 million hours of human thought. I worked this out with Martin Wattenberg at IBM; it's a back-of-the-envelope calculation, but it's the right order of magnitude, about 100 million hours of thought.

Television watching Two hundred billion hours, in the U.S.

alone, every year. Put another way, now that we have a unit, that's 2,000 Wikipedia projects a year spent watching television. Or put still another way, in the U.S., we spend 100 million hours every weekend, just watching the ads…


but the US TV-viewing “cognitive surplus” is

not transferrable for editing, say, Javanese Wikipedia

Shirky’s “cognitive surplus” is limited to the first-world context

- when spare time is speculated to be useful for virtual work (or digital net work)


e.g. Javanese Wikipedia as an early attempt to create the beginning of media-information-language literacy for Javanese users to create the basic digital-net work literacy for themselves (often without state support)

“Social mobilization” theory is not limited to the first-world context, and it highlights the role of media-information-language literacy in the so-called “cognitive surplus”


Who and which institution can benefit from the social mobilization of Chinese-language users in digital networked environment?

Chinese-language case:

social mobilization surplus of Chinese-language users

Block-and-Diffusion: Disciplining the emerging social mobilization of mainland Chinese Internet users.


the Internet development in China better-than-history growth after 2006 actually “suppressed” significantly in

the early 2000s does not match the slow-fast-slow

innovation diffusion S-shape pattern does not match the other East Asian

regions

Wikipedia in mainland China: the critical years of 2005-2008

“Great Firewall” as comparative advantage given to Baidu Baike

“Great Firewall” as divider for social mobilization surplus from Chinese-language internet users

Impacts: divided Chinese-language social mobilization surplus via SERPs



Block-and Diffusion of mainland Chinese Internet users

Redirecting and segregating the growing mainland Chinese social mobilization surplus (or “cognitive surplus”) of new Internet users…


Block-and Diffusion of mainland Chinese Internet users

or re-shaping the “social mobilization” processes among Chinese-language users and information


Linguistically-constitutedGeographically-configured

Literacy, social mobilization and political development.

How do we account for social mobilization surplus (or “cognitive surplus”) for more than just first-world countries?

Chinese Internet users?

Indian Internet users?

Call-center workers?

Theoretical concepts: “social mobilization” (cf. crowd-sourcing?)


“Social mobilization” theory (Deutsch, 1961): a process in which “old social, economic, and psychological commitments are eroded or broken and people become available for new patterns of socialization and behavior.” the necessary prior conditions for political mobilization (Cameron,

1974) Common practices: nation-state building on mass literacy, mass

media, public culture and political development (usually mono-lingualism)

… a “linguistically constituted” public space. (Habermas, 1998, pp. 360-1)

… a “geographically bounded” nation state Creating and accounting (national) “labour force”

Theoretical concepts: geo-linguistic dynamics


“geo-linguistic dynamics”: both old and new patterns of socialization and behaviours that is “linguistically-constituted” and “geographically-configured”.

Empirical bases: Global Wikipedia projects Global Voice Multi-lingual search engine markets and SEOs Multi-lingual cities

“geo-linguistic groups of users”: users that are identified (and sometimes codified, e.g. “en-UK”, “ar-EG”) by media and ICT consumption and production systems.

Indicators of social mobilization surplus, divided by geo-linguistic groups (instead of countries)


Baseline proxy Time-use survey Internet penetration rates, Global Internet usage, etc. “Workaholic” cross-country comparison

Actualized “virtual work” products of cognitive surplus Wikipedia statistics Twitter Translation Center TED Open Translation Project

Implications for research


Development indicators of geo-linguistic groups (instead of nation-states) “developed” versus “developing” groups

Development indicators of cross- and trans- geo-linguistic pair comparisons Import vs Export Core-peripheral relationship among

languages (e.g. en-zh) or among regions (e.g. ar-EG vs ar-QT, or pt-BR vs pt-PT)

Strategic pairs: e.g. German-Turkish, English-Spanish, Chinese-Arabic, etc.

New media- and information- literacy beyond (national) mass literacy programs for new labour force

Implications for policy and market development


Accounting/creating social mobilization surplus(or “cognitive surplus”) for new markets and new labour force

Better use of geo-linguistic and geo-cultural data/analysis to measure and monitor existing and emerging cognitive surplus.

In a nutshell


From creating/accounting (national) or“labour force”

-- linguistic diversity as “bugs”

To creating/accounting (geo-linguistic) “social mobilization surplus” -- linguistic diversity as “features”

Virtual work is “linguistically constituted” and also “geographically configured” for social mobilization

Geo-linguistic Dynamics of Virtual Work in Wikipedia projects and beyondCognitive Surplus and Social Mobilization Theory

Han-Teng Liao’s presentation for

September 29, 2013

201309 geo-linguistic dynamics virtual work liao IS1202 Malta

Business

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