Amazon reviews as performance art: Science studies to the rescue!

Josh points out in a comment to my last Amazon comments/performance art post that, as a graduate student, he wrote a paper about fake Amazon reviews and the notion of online community. From the introduction:

In the past decade, "Community" has become one of the biggest buzzwords with regard to computer-mediated-communication.... However, while this is by all means a noble pursuit, such work reifies the technology in question. Its tacit implication that the creation of the right space will lead to community-forming misses the point that technology is somewhat flexible, and that users have as much agency with regard to the construction of a "virtual settlement" as do its designers.

The following case study of facetious book reviews on Amazon.com offers an example of such activity on the part of users, as they hijack a public space and reshape it for their own purposes. A community developed among these users, complete with shared norms, shared language, and a shared sense of purpose.

And people wonder what science studies is good for. Sheesh....

P.S. Josh, if this post results in absolutely no increase in your traffic, don't tell me.

[To the tune of Steve Winwood, "While You See A Chance," from the album "Chronicles".]