Subsumption of Attention Commons : Towards Polycentric Platform Governance

초록

As witnessed in the history of regulations on emergent communication technologies, discussion of "platforms governance" falls back on technical categories stemming from old technologies, such as "conduit and content" and "editor and host." This work proposes an alternative framework, attention commons, which potentially lays a ground theory that generates governing principles for the broadly defined digital intermediaries. Attention commons framework suggests that digital intermediaries’ social responsibilities arise from their success in expropriating attention, which is a necessary and scarce resource for democratic decision making, into their valorization process, rather than their technical functions. This approach suggests responsibilities that are commensurate with their network power and the shift of perspective on governance to sociotechnical and institutional designs that are specific to local problems, informed by an Ostromian institutional approach. Further, I propose empirical questions to validate and reify the attention commons as a governing theory.

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