Information Services and Digital Literacy

5

The culture of participation

Abstract:

This chapter describes how the digital information culture creates and lowers boundaries of knowing by influencing our assumptions and expectations of participation, contribution, freedom and compensation. The contemporary culture of participation is penetrated by dichotomies of the culture of freedom and commercialism, expectations of participation, and the reality of non-participation. Contemporary culture embodies an expectation that people participate, but, as we see, different forms of participation can be very different from traditional ideas of what participation and engagement mean. Similarly, the rules of participation have shifted and a new economy of participation with new boundaries to withhold ...