Benkler

He talks about how the social networks eliminate or minimize a figure of power and it unites people. “The first shift means that these new patterns of production—nonmarket and radically decentralized— Will emerge, if permitted, at the core, rather than the periphery of the most advanced economies. It promises to enable social production and exchange to play a much larger role, alongside property- and market based production, than they ever have in modern democracies.” It is not possible for people to share information or to feel comfortable doing so if they are always restricted. The social exchange will play a larger role as he has said, people have more access to information and are more willing to share information via social networks such as Facebook.

Benkler was talking about how websites are in groups. I believe those groups are basically their own social network. Those websites can link you to another website that may interest you just like when you are on Facebook and you look at someone’s profile then click on a friend that might have posted something on their wall. These websites are linking people together which is what I believe social networking is all about.

Some social networks that I like to look at things about sports. On the ESPN website people can comment on the work of an author. The author doesn’t have to come back and be a person in authority when people are discussing his topic. Many people have different beliefs about sports teams and or players and this is a good way people are able to voice their opinion and they are free to do so. I like to play Xbox live which is playing video games online. I believe this is a kind of social network. I think there is one large social network in Xbox Live as a whole and there are smaller networks that are the different games that people play. On Xbox live there is no one that is in charge really besides the creators and they have little to no power over who can play the game or what they can talk about. The only restriction that they basically have is to make sure that gamer tags do not have profanity in them.