Abstract
The core argument of this volume can be summarized as follows. The unequal distribution of effort found in social media projects is not a mere accident, but a fact of life. A group of very productive users dominates the collaborative process due to a natural trend toward social differentiation. Contribution patterns differentiate leaders from followers relatively early in the process, which offers a convenient and flexible (adhocratic) mechanism of coordination and control through a functional response: leading means achieving by doing the most. The metaphorical “1% effect” in the title of this volume makes a direct allusion to this process. In time, online collaborative projects set aside a selected group of individuals to “make a difference.” Their role is to differentiate the project from its competitors, while they, themselves, are differentiated as working leaders or, to apply a term used on several occasions in this volume, as functional leaders. Another way to understand the “1% effect” is by stating that the contribution leaders are “constitutive.” Their efforts generate the momentum needed for the growth of the project.
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Matei, S.A., Britt, B.C. (2017). Conclusions. In: Structural Differentiation in Social Media. Lecture Notes in Social Networks. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64425-7_11
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