research-article

Preserving the Margins: Supporting Creativity and Resistance on Digital Participatory Platforms

Author:

Gabriel MugarAuthors Info & Claims

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Volume 1, Issue CSCW

Article No.: 83, Pages 1 - 14

https://doi.org/10.1145/3134718

Published: 06 December 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Online participatory platforms like Wikipedia and Zooniverse are designed to welcome contributions from anyone, however, to contend with a high volume of contributions, a range of constraints are deployed that align opportunities for participation toward ends defined by the experts and leaders of such platforms. In this paper I draw on extensive ethnographic work to describe how users encounter and negotiate opportunities for participation on two participatory platforms, demonstrating how platforms can exhibit distinct spaces and opportunities for participation, in some cases heavily enforcing standards of practice defined by experts and leaders while also leaving room for emergent and even divergent and deviant behavior. In describing this tension between conditions of normative and deviant participation, I highlight the importance of supporting opportunities for deviant and emergent participation to occur, emphasizing that design which uniquely supports narrow modes of participation can prevent opportunities for more inclusionary practice and evolving objectives.

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Cited By

Seredko AHillman T(2024)What Does a Downvote Do? Performing Complementary and Competing Knowledge Practices on an Online PlatformProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36536928:CSCW1(1-28)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3653692

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Published In

cover image Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction Volume 1, Issue CSCW

November 2017

2095 pages

EISSN:2573-0142

DOI:10.1145/3171581

Editors:
Clifford Lampe
University of Michigan
,
Jeff Nichols
Google
,
Karrie Karahalios
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
,
Geraldine Fitzpatrick
Vienna University of Technology
,
Uichin Lee
KAIST
,
Andres Monroy-Hernandez
Snap Inc.
,
Wolfgang Stuerzlinger
Simon Fraser University

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Copyright © 2017 ACM.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 06 December 2017

Published in PACMHCI Volume 1, Issue CSCW

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Cited By

Seredko AHillman T(2024)What Does a Downvote Do? Performing Complementary and Competing Knowledge Practices on an Online PlatformProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36536928:CSCW1(1-28)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3653692

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