Design to Thrive

The dilemma of control vs creativity

So far in this consideration of future external forces that may derail the sustainability of social networking systems, we've only considered issues stemming from intellectual property. A second area where history shows us we can expect future friction is the classic binary between social control and individual creativity.

If we look at how political power, economic capital, and hegemonic cultural practices have been sustained, we can see the same pattern of inventing institutions of control being repeated historically. In feudal systems, ownership of the land was essential to the control of power. These were agrarian economies, and land was essential to produce crops; hence, social structures such as the ...