Success in the hands of the community

“Success in the Hands of the Community: HitRECord.org as a Case for the Transformation of Artistic Collaboration in the Digital Space.”

Samantha JunemanWe The Network

COM 5978/16/2012

Topic/Problem:

• The Internet provides digital meeting grounds for artists.

• Digital collaboration communities are constantly evolving, gaining success, and also failing.

• What aspects of a modern digital collaboration community are successful and why?

• Enter…

Key Literature/ Theoretical Model

• Candy and Edmonds “Explorations in Art and Technology” (2002)- Thought leaders in the effect modern technology (the Internet) has on Artistic Collaboration.

• Edmond’s “New Directions in Interactive Art Collaboration” (2006)- Context of Evolution of Digital Collaboration

• Burr’s “Social Contructionism” (2003) – Understand how members form their own realities.

• Garner’s “Social Theory: Power and identity in the global era” (2010)- Understand how Hall’s Encoding/Decoding effects community interaction.

Research Questions:

• Why do the members of HitRECord choose to collaborate on this space when there are other digital collaboration mediums available to them?

• Does the fact that HitRECord functions as an online “production company” have an effect on the creativity it facilitates?

• What incentives does an artist have to continue to collaborate within the HitRECord Community?

Data:Phone interviews with 7 active community members

chosen at random. Each interview respondent was asked the same questions

Data:

• Definition of Goals and Success for HitRECord participation.

• Why HitRECord and not another collaborative community?

• What incentives do they have to collaborate in the HitRECord community?

• Favorite and least favorite parts about the community and the platform?

• Observations, unique to their experience with HitRECord?

• What is HitRECord’s most valuable asset? Least valuable asset?

Findings:

Collaboration70% listed this as a

personal goal.43% listed this as their

definition of success

“They ultimately want more.”

Findings:

Features/Recognition28% listed this as a

personal goal.86% listed this as their

definition of success

After they place their intentions in the context of the community, their personal definitions change.

“Social Constructionism”

Findings:

Learning/Inspiration43% listed this as their

definition of success

They don’t expect it to happen, but eventually adopt the importance the community has placed on this.

0% listed this as a

personal goal.

Findings:Monetary Gain/Published Works

28% listed this as a

personal goal.0% listed this as their

definition of success

1 respondent mentioned this as their incentive to collaborate on HR

2 respondents mentioned this as HR’s biggest asset for success.

“This is what they perceive as other members’ incentives”“Encoding”

Findings:

Support/Community0% listed this as their

definition of success43% listed this as a

personal goal.

72% noted this as an incentive to participate.

3 respondents noted this one of HR’s assets.

Conclusion:

• The collective community will work together to create their own culture and reality.

• Initial individual perceptions will change as they are influenced by the group.

• A clear involvement with the group is important to the individual.

Next Steps:Recommendations for future Digital Collaborative Communities:

• Don’t constrict or influence the culture, it will naturally shift.

• Don’t inhibit communication or control.

• Collaborative communities thrive on the influence they have on each other- make this visible.

• Give users multiple incentives, they may discover which aspects they are actually looking for.

Questions?