Who are you?

“Tell me, who are you? ‘Cause I really wanna know!” Aside from being belted by the iron lungs of The Who’s Roger Daltrey, these words have been running through my mind for the past few weeks concerning the topic of online authority. This topic has been touched upon in previous classes, and after I reviewed the literature on community informatics an interesting point was raised by Michael Gurstein as he points out that “the individual may control their profile but they can do so only within the rules over which they have no direct influence and which they can resist or ignore only at the risk of being de-networked”. When considering this point I was initially taken aback as such a thought had not before occurred to me, and the idea that many of my activities on the internet are ultimately under the control of someone else seemed foreign. That being said this provoked a question for me which was: Who is authoritative on the internet?

After looking around on the internet it became clear that authority on the internet (and elsewhere) is not just “someone with their finger on the button”. Rather, I learned that authority is multifaceted. An example put forth in the following video (http://www.churchofcustomer.com/2009/01/what-is-authority-really.html) considered an individual’s popularity as giving them a sense of authority. When considering this standpoint I found myself in agreement, as popularity in my own experiences (schoolyard and elsewhere) has led to an individual having considerable influence over others. However when taken into consideration that in online communities a “friend” is for the most part just a rough approximation of a “real friend”, the notion of popularity then seems inflated. As such this “popular” person might have no actual influence or over their acquaintances, and as such might be lacking in actual authority.

When considering online authority, popular persons are not alone. Consider the following quote: “Jerry Seinfeld Might Make a fun spokesperson for Microsoft, but Bill Gates didn’t place him in charge of R&D” (http://copywriteink.blogspot.com/2008/12/dispelling-myths-online-authority.html). Reflecting on the above, this quote sheds light on the fact that people don’t need to be popular to be authoritative over others (especially on the internet), rather they just need to be in a position of control. In the case of online communities this position of control typically takes the form of an individual having greater autonomy online, and thus the actual ability to control the online activities of others against their will. The part that I found most intimidating about these authoritative people, is the fact that as individuals they did not need to be popular, they just needed to create a popular website.
-Dan