13 responses to “Thoughts on the Great Digg Revolt of 2007”
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Censorship attempts on the web encourage wider distribution. Well put. I remember when radio stations would have their djs complain about p2p back when napster was around but ever since they stopped talking about it, more people actually buy cds and mp3s.
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Thanks Antony. As interesting and thought-provoking as I was hoping. I dropped a few more thoughts here. Cheers, David
http://open.typepad.com/open/2007/05/ey_up_theres_tr.html#comment-68340348.
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You’re very welcome…
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Digg revolt: Rethinking the ‘wisdom of crowds’
Antony Mayfield calls it the Great Digg Revolt of 2007 and Mike Arrington says Viva la Revolution but for Web 2.0 entrepreneurs, the story of Digg’s capitulation to its mob of users intent on linking to a DRM crack must be somewhat disquieting. The eve…
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Nice analysis Anthony… Particularly interested in your “The crowd is smart and has a good memory for successful techniques” point. You’re of course spot on and an angle i haven’t really specifically thought about before – i.e. the ‘crowd/community’ acting as a single entity and demonstrating these types of behavioral characteristics…you’ve got me thinking so thanks…
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I wonder how some UK newspapers who are keen to attract bloggers and UGC on their websites would have reacted in similar circumstances?
It’s a big ask to rely on staff to see a piece early enough to pull it and you can imagine their competitors would lap it up as soon as the full facts were out.
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“..will restrict social news sites such as Digg and Techmeme to a geek ghetto; the general public really doesn’t care that much.”
The odds on a site called Techmeme becoming a place where non-geek-ghettoers gather seem quite slim. :)
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Craig – that’s a very, very interesting thought. And a question that mainstream media brands looking to enter this space will need to ask themselves.
What would happen if MyEXPRESS was dominated by far-right agitators or MyMIRROR (when/if it comes?) by militant animal-rights activists who forced a similar issue?
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I don’t think anybody’s arguing that crowds aren’t powerful. But I’m not sure this crowd wasn’t just stubborn, rather than wise.
The laws change, but the rule of law shouldn’t.
So yes, I am circumspect – I don’t believe that mob action is a good thing by default, even if it’s all sparkly and Web 2.0 and whatever.
Would we be so happy to watch them do this in other cases? What if this was to do with, say, a libel suit? Or a contempt of court case?
OK, those are speculative. But, like you say, users know how to try this tactic and (so far) it has worked. That is what concerns me, because the consequences of others trying the same thing in the future could be incredibly damaging.
(Remember, this a very vocal minority of Digg users pulling in the same direction. Who’s to stop a few thousand concerted users doing the same with another topic?)
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Thanks for your comment, Bobbie – I think you’re right to be circumspect.
The implications of what happened at Digg are complex and concerning. The scenarios you describe will happen at some point, I think, and our approval or disapproval will be beside the point in some ways: they just will happen.
There are many questions society, societies around the world, will have to deal with when it comes to living with open networks. I guess the question may be: will we be able to deal with the openness and transparency of the web? Openness and transparency are loaded, usually positive words for most of us, but they carry all sorts of consequences for the way we live.
I hope that new ways of thinking and dealing with these things emerge – the alternative is more draconian regulation of the web and with the loss of freedoms would come a loss of potential for all of us.
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My thoughts exactly.
It is something Shane Richmond alludes to in a piece about My Telegraph:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/shanerichmond/apr07/moremytele.htm
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Andrew Keen, Digg and Radio 4’s BH: a round-up of last week on and off the web
I’ve been meaning to post about a number of events that unfolded last week but am only now getting round to it. First up was the Observer’s story last Sunday (29 April 2007) about Andrew Keen, the British guy living
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maybe just conincidence, but as i was reading your post i came across this breaking story on Flickr about copyright and crowd behaviour in the social media space
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rebba/497746041/
it will be interesting to see how this one gets resoved…
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