“The Architecture of Participation”: For Citizens or Consumers?

During the last couple of years, a lot of discussions concerning the Internet have made use of the concepts “web 2.0” and “social media”. What these concepts have in common, is an insistence on the argument that the Internet today is very diff erent from its previous versions. Both “web 2.0” and “social media” point to the fact that the Internet is both updated (“2.0”) and more interactive than it used to be and that it also-as a consequenceallows for more lively and varied interaction between users. Hence, it also becomes a more “social” medium.