OPEN SCIENCE
This week's topic is on micropolitics. Micropolitics can be defined as ideas of networks that are self sufficient, dependent, with technics that function differently from socio-cultural norms (Wikitionary 2013).
I did some research into the opinions of other past students who studied micropolitics and it interests me that their ideas aren't that far off from what has been taught now. Sapountzis (2011) believes that micropolitics has dynamic power that allows it to rework itself and the society around us in an open source democratic way. Calacouris (2011) further emphasised the inception of micropolitics as a result of the fear of government institutional power, he talks about the unequal rights to power because the government has access to our ip addresses and capable of monitoring and spying on people's actions without their consent.
Micropolitics in my opinion is quite relevant to networked internet cultures for the past few years. The empowerment of individuality seems pervasive as it gives people the ability and willpower to conceptualize their ideas into reality, share their projects and share information instantaneously and globally.
We can say that the internet is a crucible for multiple micropolitical networks to thrive and grow. There's even potential for these networks to shift transversally, vertically and horizontally with other small communities.
The example I could think of is the foundation of P2P sharing in networks. We all have electronic storage space that allows us to share information to people. The power of these networks shares power to other people and the dynamic structure of these networks.
Kickstarter, Dropbox and mobile applications are interesting examples to consider simply because it gives meaning to user generated technology. These are central to this theory of micropolitics simply because of the shift in power between client and server. We used to heavily rely on sources to gain access to certain information but because of this big change, power and rights of usage are equally shared with people on the internet.
Calacouris, G 2011, ARTS3091: Is the Internet a micropolitical network?, Blogpost, accessed 13 May 2013,
<http://gcalacouris.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/arts3091-is-the-internet-a-micropolitical-network/>
Sapountzis, F 2011, Week 9 - Social Organisation = Micropolitics, Networks, Designing for and Living in New Communities, Blogpost, accessed 13 May 2013,
<http://felicias3091.blogspot.com.au/2011/05/week-9-social-organisation.html>
Wikitionary 2013, Micropolitics, Wikitionary, accessed 13 May 2013,http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/micropolitics
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