Blockchain-based social media platforms emerged as a push for decentralized governance, in response to growing skepticism towards centralized social media corporations.
Steem, a leading blockchain-based social media platform, has recently been taken over in an attempt to centralize control. The disempowered witnesses responded promptly with a hard fork - Hive - in an attempt to re-establish the previous governance model.
We, a group of researchers interested in how social media can be governed, want to find out what is really going on in this quest for new governance approaches. We want to hear both sides, Steemers and Hivers. We want to find out:
• Steemers: What was the motivation for taking over Steem's witness nodes?
• Hivers: What was the motivation for the Hive hard fork?
• Everyone: How exactly was the takeover / the hard fork carried out? Why was this possible to occur in the first place? Could this happen again in the future? How do you think will the situation evolve?
• Witnesses on both sides: What is your vision for the governance of Steem / Hive? How do you intend to achieve this vision?
• Users on both sides: Which platform do you intend to use onwards (Steem, Hive, or both), and why?
The aim of this research is to identify new governance approaches for social media and aggregate them into a comprehensive framework. The results of this research will be published in reports and academic publications and made available to everyone. We hope that this will inspire further research and development on social media governance in general and blockchain-based social media platforms in particular. Examples of our already published research on Steem can be here and here.
You can support this research by sharing your view on "Steem vs Hive" in two ways:
- Sign up for a one-hour interview with us. First, select a time slot via this Doodle form: Interview Timeslots. Second, let us know how to contact you via this Google form: Contact Information. All responses will be kept anonymously.
OR - Respond to the above questions in written, either via the comment section below or (anonymously) via this Google form: Written Responses.
We want to seek out a broad sample of different views on this issue, so everyone is welcome to participate in the discussion in the comment section. For the interviews, being more time-consuming, we are especially interested in talking to members who are actively involved in co-shaping the evolution of the governance approach on both sides.
#steem #hive #steemvshive #hiveisalive #governance #research
(apologies for cross-posting this on Steem and Hive)