A Virtual Commons: Public vs Private

Virtual communities were created as a “new” public sphere. The idea was to have technology help gather people, having the end result be free exchange of information and ideas. Facebook is an excellent example of this because it was literally invented by students at Harvard looking for an easier way to communicate information with their peers. This trickled down to the average college student, and as of more recently leaked down to anyone who wants to create an account and log onto the server.

Aside from the well documented losses of privacy which people voluntarily waive to become members of these sites, there is a question of the public vs. the private. The public domain is available to everyone, without imposing onto the limit of their social capital. The public domain is also free, such as a public park. The private domain is based upon the limited success of the individual. Ownership is a major component of the private sector. When something belongs to the private sector, there will be a theoretical reliance on a modern capitalist system. The private also assumes that people are “capable of rational thought”.

Online communities like Facebook and Myspcace encourage everyone to sign up and log onto their server to exchange information. The catch is that when there is enough “social capital” gained (by the number of people signing up), Facebook and Myspace might well become part of the private to extract what they need to from its members in order to advance itself. Google has even talked about owning all books in their entirety to be able to increase literacy, if not only information in the form of “online books”.
The below link leads to an article explaining the idea of basically bringing books from authors online, and as some might say, into the online public sphere.

http://everybodyslibraries.com/2009/03/18/the-google-books-settlement-a-symposium-and-a-call-for-library-action/