In the 1990s, America Online (AOL) employed thousands of volunteer “community leaders” to monitor chat rooms and message boards.
In 1999, two former community leaders sued AOL for back wages, arguing they should have been classified as employees. AOL ultimately settled the lawsuit for $15 million in 2010.
The case highlighted the issue of how to define work in the digital age. The community leaders worked from home on their own computers but were still integral to AOL’s services.
There are modern counterparts to AOL’s community leaders, such as Reddit moderators. But companies like Reddit and Facebook have avoided the legal issues AOL faced by being more hands-off with their user-created content and communities.
Some critics argue companies like Facebook and BuzzFeed take advantage of users by getting them to provide free labor and content that the companies then monetize through advertising. Users get non-monetary rewards like reputation points or “cat power” rather than actual compensation.
The article questions whether this system is really equitable or sustainable. Companies may risk losing devoted users if they become too aggressive in monetizing user-created content and communities.
An updated version of the adage “if you’re not the customer, you’re the product” could be “if you’re not the customer, you’re the product. And quite possibly the employee.” Since users provide value to companies like content and moderation, they could be seen as a type of employee, even if they are not officially paid.
The key themes of the article are:
The blurry line between users, volunteers, and employees in the digital age. AOL’s community leaders and modern counterparts like Reddit moderators provide value to companies but are not officially employees.
The debate over whether companies are unfairly taking advantage of users by profiting from their free labor and content. Some see it as a fair exchange, while others argue it is “digital sharecropping.”
The risk of companies alienating their users by becoming too aggressive in monetizing the value those users provide. AOL faced backlash, and companies today have to strike a balance.
The updated notion of “if you’re not the customer, you’re the product. And quite possibly the employee.” This captures how companies profit from users not just as an audience to sell to advertisers but as a source of labor and content.
That was a good read, thank you.
Here is an AI tldr summary of the article:
In the 1990s, America Online (AOL) employed thousands of volunteer “community leaders” to monitor chat rooms and message boards.
In 1999, two former community leaders sued AOL for back wages, arguing they should have been classified as employees. AOL ultimately settled the lawsuit for $15 million in 2010.
The case highlighted the issue of how to define work in the digital age. The community leaders worked from home on their own computers but were still integral to AOL’s services.
There are modern counterparts to AOL’s community leaders, such as Reddit moderators. But companies like Reddit and Facebook have avoided the legal issues AOL faced by being more hands-off with their user-created content and communities.
Some critics argue companies like Facebook and BuzzFeed take advantage of users by getting them to provide free labor and content that the companies then monetize through advertising. Users get non-monetary rewards like reputation points or “cat power” rather than actual compensation.
The article questions whether this system is really equitable or sustainable. Companies may risk losing devoted users if they become too aggressive in monetizing user-created content and communities.
An updated version of the adage “if you’re not the customer, you’re the product” could be “if you’re not the customer, you’re the product. And quite possibly the employee.” Since users provide value to companies like content and moderation, they could be seen as a type of employee, even if they are not officially paid.
The key themes of the article are:
The blurry line between users, volunteers, and employees in the digital age. AOL’s community leaders and modern counterparts like Reddit moderators provide value to companies but are not officially employees.
The debate over whether companies are unfairly taking advantage of users by profiting from their free labor and content. Some see it as a fair exchange, while others argue it is “digital sharecropping.”
The risk of companies alienating their users by becoming too aggressive in monetizing the value those users provide. AOL faced backlash, and companies today have to strike a balance.
The updated notion of “if you’re not the customer, you’re the product. And quite possibly the employee.” This captures how companies profit from users not just as an audience to sell to advertisers but as a source of labor and content.