« Submit papers to Persuasive 08 -- 14 days left | Main | From Freerice to Mobile Mechanical Turks for Peace »
January 02, 2008
Mass Communication Subversion
While ad revenue continues to drive many web 2.0 companies, Subvert and Profit is not the first attempt to employ "crowd hacking" techniques to let people pay to get their content on Digg, Stumble Upon and more recently YouTube. Without trying to spin their business into something socially acceptable, advertisers pay 9,000 users internationally to pollute big social sites and get traffic. The rate for Diggs and Stumbles runs at $2 a vote and users receive $1 for their contribution. You can also earn 20% of the earnings of any friends you refer, and 10% of the cost of advertisements from any advertisers you refer. The service is shrouded in promises of secrecy for their clients and difficult to measure how it actually contributes to the success of content. Despite all the ethical questions, envision a similar model for subversion that may increase positive net benefit for our society like creating incentives for citizens to participate in our democratic process.
Posted by Enrique at January 2, 2008 04:19 PM