Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 10
Communication in Crowdfunding Online
Platforms
Gloria Gómez-Diago
10.1
Introduction
The internet is the media, or sum of media, which have probably provoked the most
relevant revolution in the last decades. This revolution has utterance at different con-
texts of the citizens' lives. Searching a job, being in touch with people who are far
away, being informed about issues of interest, streaming videos, listening to music,
buying and or reading topics and cocreating documents are all activities now per-
formed online by most of the 40 % of the world population who have internet con-
nection (
Internet Live Stats
,
Internet Usage Statistics
). Collective creation can be
done with ease on the cyberspace by using any of the multitude of devices and options
available. In another place (Gómez-Diago
2010
,
2012
), we have illustrated the suit-
ability of virtual worlds such as Second Life® for working collaboratively online.
According to Stohl (
2014
) 'the crowds of today encapsulate new forms of politi-
cal, economic, and creative power'. The ease with which users take part in social
networks stimulates the creation of a social capital, the one that 'is result of the
value of the connections among individuals and of the norms of reciprocity and
trustworthiness that arise from them' (Putnam
2000
).
An example of social capital produced on the net is free and open-source
software, created under a methodology named The Bazaar by Raymond (
1998
)
and which is characterised by the fact that being the source code available, many
persons contribute to develop the software, to fi x it and to improve it.
Free and open-source software is much more accessible than privative software
which is unaffordable for most of the population, and more important, its use
encourages citizens to program by allowing them to study its source code, to install
the software in several computers, to update it, etc.
