This reading emphasises that Intellect Property has now evolved from the issue of law, ethics and polities to the issue of culture. The shift of cultural model in consuming media online affects the way people think about ownership, sharing, ethics and responsibilities. File sharing has changed the conception of usage and ownership, thus Intellectual Property is not an issue of morality anymore but the temporality and interconnectedness of technological and cultural development. For example, the record industry has to follow the trend of technology because the traditional business model has become less relevant in the digital age.

This reading uses theoretical framework founded by Stiegler (1998) explaining that humans, as technical beings, need to correspond to time, social and cultures in a digital medium. This theory is a good foundation to my research on collaboration on Youtube. This is because Youtube users keep experimenting to create new creative productions for viewers to enjoy.

This reading also noted the way society consumes media that are available online. The case study included in this reading posed a similar mode of sharing and collaborating online to the resources I gathered. The study mentioned the alternative products to be shared and consumed by networked community thus creating a distinct sense of community and culture. The platform to contribute media is a self-sustaining market economy that is comprised of a member of volunteers. The users become active critics on the music uploaded to give aesthetic judgment thus highlighting the trends within that community.


Stiegler, Bernard. (1998). Technics and time, 1: The fault of Epimetheus. (Richard Beardsworth & George Collins, Trans.). Stanford, CA: Stanford
University Press.

This paper discusses the reasons why people would voluntarily share their knowledge to the online community. In the first section of the paper, the author uses theory based on the scientific community and their incentive to collaborate. The theory is then implemented to the case of an online collaboration platform, Wikipedia. The theory explains how the scientific community would share knowledge through an incentive system called 'the cycle of credit'. The credit is a reward mechanism to encourage online contributions. The credit is not a straightforward reward system, but acts as motivation for the contributor to have a sense of credibility, power and efficacy within the community. Similar reading by Castells (2007) claimed that 'media has become the social space where power is decided', which means that productions that are available online have political meaning in online society.

The Wikipedia case included in the reading has a different approach when questioning why people voluntarily contribute to knowledge sharing as there is no distinct feature to acknowledge the contributor. The case has a different perspective on voluntary contributions when compared to my research on Youtube. This is because on Youtube, the contributors can provide ownership information to the viewer to achieve their credibility. Although the case study has a different perspective to my research project, I found the theory included in the reading useful to assist me to understand the fundamental sociology of why people would like to share knowledge and voluntarily contribute in online environment.

Castells, M. (2007), 'Communications, Power and Counter-power in the Network Society', International Journal of Communications. 1, 238-366. Available online at http://ijoc.org/ojs/index.php/ijoc/article/view/46

This video provides insightful information about online collaboration. Although the speakers emphasised Wiki as being the platform to collaborate online, I found a few similarities in the aspect of online collaboration to the project I researched, which is collaboration on Youtube. The similarities include its flexibility, it's easy to use, it is a form of multimedia and it encourages collaborative between users. The online collaboration platforms such as Wiki and Youtube also enable the users to address the issues that may arise when group work is done through physical contact. These issues are the lack of physical collaboration due to linguistic and cultural differences, the ability to complete the task in a timely manner as different users have different schedules and the inappropriate use of different sources that may not available to each participant.

Online collaboration platforms allow users to research, review, discuss and negotiate between participants to achieve a common goal. This means the platforms provide neutral grounds for participants to develop their collaborative skills, improve online engagement, encourage peer-to-peer editing and provide dynamic interactive space.

This video relates well to another video, by Clay Shirky (2005) on Institutions Vs Collaboration that explains the benefit of online collaboration to achieve a particular goal. One particular benefit in Shirky's video is 'power-law distribution', where people can contribute to their own extent. This concept is reflected well in the case study in the 'Promoting collaborative learning using wiki' video where students are assigned to groups to create collaborative works online.

Shirky, Clay (2005) Institutions Vs Collaboration. Available online at http://www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_on_institutions_versus_collaboration.html

This article examines on various factors of uses and gratification on why people utilise media in Youtube. First factor is motivation, where the writers believe that the media behaviour is goal directed and purposive. This motivation is part of the central concept in acquiring media within online space. Youtube technology enable the user to satisfy interpersonal needs and communicate their opinion to others thus creating social bond between users. Secondly, the activity factor explained that Youtube provides a medium to facilitate activities to audience before, during and after media exposure. This activity can influence how audience perceive certain (media exposure) through social interaction. Last factor, which is affinity, described how Youtube enable users to select various channel of media for their own interest. For example, active users tend to create their own video and share with the public, while the less active users may only need to find information or entertainment. These factors relates well with the reading by Wasko (2005), which examine why online users voluntarily contribute knowledge and ideas to help others in online environment.  Following the factors above, the writer also includes the study on user background characteristics that shape their activity on Youtube. This characteristics including: social activities and interpersonal interaction, locus of control where belief is reflected to control events, sensation seeking and innovativeness. The study is based on the quantitative research to support their hypothesis. 

To conclude the article, there was an argument that previously, researchers believed the Internet would blur the lines between mass and interpersonal communication. Through the analytical data that were included, the writer argued that the new social networking sites would blend the mass and interpersonal communication.

The link above only provide first page free sample. For complete version of this reading please access through Curtin Library catalogue Source: Haridakis, P. & Hanson, G. (2009) 'Social interaction and co-viewing with Youtube: blending mass communication reception and social connection'. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, June 2009, 53(2), p.317 (19) available online through Curtin Catalogue. Additional reference: Wasko, M. M. & Faraj, S. (2005), 'Why Should I Share? Examining Social Capital and Knowledge Contribution in Electronic Networks of Practice', MIS Quarterly, 29(1), p. 35-57.

Youtube has lowered the barriers for amateurs to upload their video online, this allows users to share content to large scale of audience. This article explores on how nonprofessional users connect to the mass at many different levels. Based on the quantitative research in this article there are combination of elements that contribute to the usage of Youtube: primary level by identifying the video narrative content from as expressing idea or opinion to displaying skills (music, sports, etc.) and secondary level by analysing the creativity made by the users and whether the production of creativity covey message about the uploader's personality traits.  The first study analyse the varieties of narrative contents uploaded in Youtube. The contents available consist from personal creativity that contain self-made sound and images, remix creativity containing both self made footage and drawing on popular culture, and borrowed creativity that consists third party performances that were rarely edited The study on the second level analyse the personality traits of the uploader which classified into: actual and ideal self when opening their personality to the audience in the online environment.   Youtube producers use their creations to connect socially by uploading their videos and sharing them to the public. This highlighted the needs of 'strong social orientation and the desire to engage in social interaction' within online environment. The collective works available on Youtube has blurred the line between authors and audiences, creators and consumers as well as experts and amateurs. 

Source: Courtois C., Mechant P., De Marez L. (2012) Communicating creativity on YouTube: what and for whom? Cyberphsychology, behavior and social networking. March 2012, 15(3): 129-134. Available online through Curtin Library Since the publication quite recent, to access this reading please go to Curtin Library catalogue and find the article through journal name.

The introduction of this chapter captivated me because it defined that Youtube is not just a media space for user to consume media but it acts as a platform that provides social networking framework which enable young people to create and share original content while making social connection virtually. This article explains how Youtube has created a participatory culture within young people. The easy and interactive features in Youtube have enabled young people to be pro-active within the online community. By collaborating online through Youtube, young people can express their identity through their creativity, seek support from peers (either from family, close friend or even strangers who have similar interest), learn new skills by watching other people tutorial and engage in public space.  To understand how Youtube enables participatory culture, this article provides thorough explanations on how the framework is supported. There are five different characteristics that form participatory culture in Youtube, these are: low barrier of artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing project, informal setting of mentorship, belief of the importance of contributions and a sense of social connection. These characteristics illustrate how Youtube users especially young people engage to communicate and exchange ideas with other users virtually. 

Source: Chau, C. (2010), YouTube as a participatory culture. New Directions for Youth Development, 2010: 65-74. Available online at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/yd.376/pdf

Youtube acts as a place that enables users to access media, create, connect, collaborate and share between other Youtube users. This article explores how Youtube provides community space through technology that facilitates music creativity by the users. The article is divided by two sections; firstly, the relationship of art and technology will be examined and reflected on appropriate literatures, the other section will analyse a case study of an amateur musician who consumes music and ideas, recreates and shares back this 'art' work. Through Youtube, masses are able to view and listen digitalised artwork and the technological revolution enable users to play, reconstruct and share innovative ideas. Thus this action has created democratisation of art where previously artworks were constrained by institutions and now the artwork politic has become bias. The case study included in this article covers many aspect on how a user utilise Youtube to collaborate online. Firstly, Youtube as a medium has the ability to connect communities of users with similar interest. Secondly, Youtube enables users to combine talents and create a piece of work even though the creators live in different geographical area. Thirdly, difficulties that affecting the production were discussed: time differences constrain, physical distance between creators, file size, different Internet access and privacy of creators. The factors mentioned is similar to the three properties of digital networks explained by Sassen (2002), which are: decentralized access, simultaneity and interconnectivity. Youtube enable the producers to promote themselves by distributing their creation to the crowd. The audience has become the 'jury' to give feedback on how they perceive the work and may become producer recreating new original work and supplementing the existing one. This made the communication and ideas to circulate within the online community.

Resource: Cayari, C. (2011) "The YouTube Effect: How YouTube has Provided New Ways to Consume, Create, and Share Music." International journal of education and the arts, July 2011, 12(6). Available online at http://www.ijea.org/v12n6/ Additional reference: Sassen, S. (2002), 'Towards a Sociology of Information Technology', Current Sociology, May, 50(3): 365-388 available online at http://transnationalism.uchicago.edu/infotech.pdf