Decentralized social protocols such as Nostr introduce a new paradigm for user-generated content (UGC) in the Web3 era, where content production, dissemination, and reward mechanisms operate without centralized governance. This paper presents one of the first large-scale empirical analyses of Nostr, based on 22.3 million user events collected from four major publicly accessible relays. Guided by three research questions, we examine (1) the temporal and spatial distribution of user participation, (2) the structural characteristics of decentralized UGC networks, and (3) thematic and incentive patterns in content creation and Zap-based rewards. Our analysis shows rapid growth followed by long-tail stabilization, while the interaction network remains highly modular and loosely connected, indicating fragmented yet persistent communities. Embedding-based clustering of textual posts identifies ten clusters on several topics: technical discussions, ideological debates, personal expression, community coordination, and media sharing, highlighting a hybrid ecosystem of social and technical discourse. We further find that knowledge-oriented content in Clusters 1 and 5 receives higher Zap engagement, suggesting the socialization of a primarily technical infrastructure. These findings advance the understanding of decentralized multimedia ecosystems by linking network decentralization with observed participation and engagement patterns in the absence of centralized moderation.
يواجه النشر العلمي الرقمي تحديات متراكمة تتمحور حول التحيز التحريري، وغموض عمليات مراجعة الأقران، وتركّز السلطة في يد قلة من البوابات الأكاديمية، حتى في ظل اعتماد منصات مفتوحة المصدر مثل نظام المجلات المفتوحة (Open Journal Systems - OJS) بإصداره 3.x. تُقدّم هذه الورقة النظرية إطاراً مفاهيمياً رائداً يستكشف إمكانية دمج نماذج حوكمة المنظمات المستقلة اللامركزية (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations - DAOs) داخل البنية المعمارية لنظام OJS 3.x، بهدف إعادة هندسة عمليات مراجعة الأقران واتخاذ القرارات التحريرية وفق منطق الشفافية الفائقة (Hyper-Transparency). يتأسس الإطار المقترح نظرياً على تكامل النظرية المؤسسية (Institutional Theory) ونظرية الوكالة (Agency Theory)، حيث تُوظَّف الأولى لتحليل الضغوط المعيارية والتقليدية والقسرية التي تُشكّل سلوك المجلات العلمية، فيما تُستخدم الثانية لتفسير مشكلات عدم تماثل المعلومات بين الأطراف الفاعلة (المحررون، المراجعون، المؤلفون، القراء). يقترح البحث ستة مكونات معمارية للإطار: العقود الذكية لإدارة سير العمل التحريري، رموز الحوكمة (Governance Tokens) لتوزيع حقوق التصويت، السجلات الموزعة (Distributed Ledgers) لتوثيق المراجعات، آليات الإجماع للقرارات النهائية، أنظمة السمعة المُرمَّزة (Tokenized Reputation Systems)، وبروتوكولات حل النزاعات الخوارزمية. تكشف المناقشة أن هذا الدمج يُعيد توزيع سلطة الحراسة الأكاديمية، ويُقلّل من تكاليف الوكالة، ويُعزّز الشرعية المؤسسية للمجلات، إلا أنه يُولّد توترات جديدة تتعلق بالإجماع الزائف، والتمويل غير المستدام، والتعقيد التقني. يُقدّم البحث آثاراً إدارية محورية لمسؤولي OJS، ويختتم بأجندة بحثية مستقبلية تُشجّع على التحقق التجريبي للإطار في سياقات نشر متنوعة.
Decentralised communities increasingly need ways to generate, contest, and maintain shared knowledge without relying on central editorial authorities. Existing collaborative systems such as wikis support large-scale knowledge production, but typically depend on centralised moderation and governance, while blockchain consensus mechanisms are primarily designed for transactional state rather than the validation and revision of shared claims. This paper introduces Pensieve, a framework for decentralised epistemic governance in collaboratively governed knowledge bases. Pensieve combines structured submissions, contribution-weighted support, and stake-backed dispute escalation to govern the publication, revision, and contestation of knowledge entries over time. The paper makes three contributions. First, it presents Pensieve as a framework for decentralised epistemic governance designed specifically for collaboratively governed knowledge bases rather than for transactional ledgers alone. Second, it formalises a contribution-weighted model of item governance and dispute resolution, showing how reputational participation and economic stake may be combined to support knowledge revision that remains both dynamic and increasingly stable over time. Third, it examines the Pensieve instance on ECF.network as an early live implementation context through which the framework is being applied to the collaborative documentation and evaluation of Web3 projects. The case study provides descriptive evidence that the framework can support structured publication, community contribution, dispute handling, and AI-assisted but human-accountable input in practice, while also revealing unresolved challenges around referencing, sustained participation, postpublication revision, and long-term governance design. Pensieve is therefore offered not as a completed solution to decentralised knowledge governance, but as a research framework and live design experiment for coordinating collective knowledge production in human-AI systems.
Open collaboration business models (OCBMs) and software have existed since the 1950s but have been plagued by work ethic and financial bottleneck due to inadequate monetization schemes. OCBMs provide a range of advantages, primarily in accelerating problem solving & innovation, reducing costs, and enhancing security and transparency. Companies could establish sustainable revenue streams while benefitting from broad tech or platform adoption. However, fair revshare and credit attribution have been persistent problems with OCBMs. Businesses such as Diaspora, Soul Force, Sun Microsystems' Open Solaris, and others have experienced unsustainable OCBM initiatives, especially in the open-source software area. Web3 ethos-based business models and blockchain technologies provide an opportunity to correct and enforce many of the monetization strains associated with open collaboration. By decentralizing operational and governance control, free markets nested within companies that run themselves can be realized. The basic philosophy for a meritocratic monetization system with fair credibility-revshare automation is discussed.
This paper introduces B4B.app, a Web3 influencer marketing protocol that leverages the Internet Computer (ICP) to solve persistent industry challenges such as fragmented data, unreliable ratings, and payment disputes. B4B.app delivers a trustless, cross-chain infrastructure combining influencer discovery, campaign management, and secure escrow payments in one seamless platform. At its core, B4B-ICP acts as a reputation and settlement layer, aggregating performance data from multiple social platforms and ensuring transparent, on-chain record keeping. This paper presents the platform’s architecture, user workflow, and implementation stack, along with key milestones and planned enhancements, including EVM interoperability and AI-driven performance prediction.
Introduction Web 3.0, also known as "Semantic Web," aims to create a more intelligent, networked, and centralized Web experience by introducing meaning and context to the Web's architecture. Blockchain, AI, and machine learning are some of the technologies that enable decentralized systems, enhanced data security, and personalized experiences. Web 3.0 is founded on a base of secure, transparent, and free-from-central-control applications. It has its most important features as linked data, which enables users to navigate and comprehend interlinked data with ease.[1] The potential use of Web 3.0 in the future can be found in things such as personalized health, decentralized finance, smart home, IoT appliances, digital ownership, social media, healthcare, education, sustainable living, and decentralized governance. The internet's history can be divided broadly into three phases: Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and Web 3.0. [2] In its initial phase, Web 1.0 was all about distributing information-static websites provided content with minimal to no interaction, With the emergence of Web 2.0, the internet became dynamic and social, enabling users to create content, interact with others, and become part of online communities. But with this greater interactivity came issues, with respect to data privacy and security. Today, we are moving into the Web 3.0 era, a smarter, more decentralized web powered by artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, and semantic intelligence. This new era does not just upgrade human-to-human interaction but also human-to-AI interaction, which makes online life more personalized and autonomous. But it also raises challenges like users will now need to deal with an information-rich world where it is harder to separate fact from reality. As the web evolves, the importance of digital literacy, the capacity to comprehend and interact with digital content increases dramatically. But still, it is difficult to define digital literacy.[6] As much as its use has been
Yanlin Li, Yung Po Tsang, Danny C. K. Ho, Mucahit Ozden · 6 authors
The rise of blockchain technology has introduced Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) as innovative tools in digital marketing, yet consumer resistance hinders their widespread adoption. This study applies innovation resistance theory to investigate the barriers to NFT marketing adoption, as well as the moderating role of consumer knowledge. Using a dual-method framework, Covariance-Based Structural Equation Modeling (CB-SEM) of survey data (n=610) and insights from eight large language models identify perceived risk as the primary barrier, amplified by higher consumer knowledge. As the first study combining empirical analysis with AI-driven insights, it provides actionable strategies to mitigate resistance and advance blockchain-based marketing.
This study explores how digital technologies can support and enhance democratic governance within organizations. It examines the shift from autocratic structures to more decentralized models, such as Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), which promote participatory decision-making. By analyzing how digital tools can strengthen knowledge sharing, collective decision-making, and innovation, we look into the potential of technology to bolster democratic governance. Overall, the study aims to create theoretical frameworks and address key challenges of digitally enabled democratic practices in organizations.
Most of today’s online community organization is done in an “implicitly feudal” manner, coordinated on centrally managed digital platforms, operated by platform companies. However, cooperative models represent a viable alternative that deserves wider recognition. This chapter explores community organizing efforts around decentralized technologies that are designed to limit centralized control, emphasize user voice, and foster participation. Specifically, we draw on two cases, https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href=" https://Social.coop ">Social.coop and The Platform, to illustrate the breadth of the cooperative approach. https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href=" https://Social.coop ">Social.coop is a cooperative social network that uses a different set of technologies, combined with fiscal sponsorship for legal recognition, toward similar ends. The Platform is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization incorporated as a multi-stakeholder cooperative, which uses blockchain technology to preserve digital art and to supplement the project’s cooperative governance processes. Our goal is to highlight the potential for increasing effective forms of voice that emerges from coupling decentralized technologies and cooperative governance models. Furthermore, we draw on insights from the cases to elicit critical tensions in the form of legal, technical, and practical hurdles, which currently hinder the growth in the adoption of network-native cooperatives. This chapter closes by providing practical recommendations to address these hurdles and avenues for further research.
Web 3.0's rise has sparked the proliferation of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), transforming design management practices. This study investigates how DAOs reshape design processes, focusing on the concept of meta-design in Web 3.0 environments. Through multi-case studies of four DAOs (Astrogirls NFT and three Kambria Open Innovation Platform projects), we conducted semi-structured interviews with eight contributors to examine the application of meta-design principles, the impact of token-based voting on design governance, and shifts in designer roles and user participation.
Open Source Software Innovations
Innovative Approaches in Technology and Social Development
From collectors and vocalists to creators, this chapter centralises the human subjects involved in the virtual influencer industry. Identifying key ideological and ethical implications relating to the political economy of virtual influencers, the chapter investigates three areas of income-generation: a) (i)non-fungible tokens ([i]NFTs); b) brand partnerships; and c) additional content creation. The discussion problematises the patriarchal, heterosexualist, racist, and androcentric mechanisms which facilitate the circulation of virtual capital, which in turn reinforce dominant ideologies of identity. Here, the relationship between virtuality and the Other is explored through the proposed concepts of andro-sociality , hetero-reality/homo-virtuality , and White-virtuality/Other-reality , arguing that virtual influencers are part of an online political economy of gender, sexuality, and race, where virtuality is a technology – sometimes a weapon – for the commodification and further oppression of Others through the interplay of realities and economic exchange. Furthermore, and in the process of these discussions, the chapter also problematises issues surrounding inequality as relating to human labour, rights, and ownership, highlighting the need for more robust socio-legal and economic frameworks to safeguard humans against the potentially harmful consequences arising from the virtual influencer industry.
The term “web3 development” refers to the practice of creating and building applications, platforms, and technologies that are designed to operate on the decentralized web, also known as web 3. This new paradigm of web development aims to leverage blockchain technology, decentralized networks, and cryptographic protocols to enable greater user control, privacy, and security. Web 3 development refers to the systematic creation of applications, platforms, and decentralized systems that leverage blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies, and decentralized networks. This procedure additionally involves implementing these applications and platforms. This chapter discusses the web 3 development importance and the driving forces behind web 3 development.
Harshitha Reddy Chitukula, S. Phanindra Reddy, M.D.N. Akash and Ramesh Karnati In this paper, we explored the potential impact of Web3 technologies on the future of social media. Web3 technologies, such as blockchain and decentralized networks, offer new opportunities for social media users to own and control their data, leading to increased privacy and security.
Florian Spychiger, Michael Lustenberger, Jens Martignoni, L. Schädler · 5 authors
Blockchain and its related concept of decentral autonomous organization (DAO) is starting to influence project management. But how might project management supported by blockchain technology look like? And how would such a new form change and affect traditional project management? Not many concepts have been designed or even implemented yet. We chose an experimental framework to answer the first aspects of these questions. We developed a Decentralized Autonomous Project Organization (DAPO) and conducted an experiment to study the impact of blockchain on traditional project management. We show that such a blockchain-based approach can support the management of simple projects. Further, a fair and clear incentive scheme seems crucial and influences the way team members engage in the work. Also, more decentralized project management increases the importance of social aspects-related project management principles such as teamwork, self-organization, and cultural aspects, while principles related to budget, objectives, and schedule remain unchanged.
Abstract Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) faces increasing environmental scrutiny, particularly concerning the energy consumption of the Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism and broader Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues. However, existing systematic literature reviews of DLT rely on limited analyses of citations, abstracts, and keywords, failing to fully capture the field’s complexity and ESG concerns. We address these challenges by analyzing the full text of 24,539 publications using Natural Language Processing (NLP) with our manually labeled Named Entity Recognition (NER) data set of 39,427 entities for DLT. This methodology identified 505 key publications at the DLT/ESG intersection, enabling comprehensive domain analysis. Our combined NLP and temporal graph analysis reveals critical trends in DLT evolution and ESG impacts, including cryptography and peer-to-peer networks research’s foundational influence, Bitcoin’s persistent impact on research and environmental concerns (a “Lindy effect”), Ethereum’s catalytic role on Proof of Stake (PoS) and smart contract adoption, and the industry’s progressive shift toward energy-efficient consensus mechanisms. Our contributions include the first DLT-specific NER data set addressing the scarcity of high-quality labeled NLP data in blockchain research, a methodology integrating NLP and temporal graph analysis for large-scale interdisciplinary literature reviews, and the first NLP-driven literature review focusing on DLT’s ESG aspects.
Web 3.0, commonly referred to as the semantic web or the decentralized web.The article presents a summary of Web 3.0's current state, including its background, evolution, and important technologies including blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), and decentralized apps (DApps).The evaluation of the decentralized web is also covered in the study, along with improvements to data privacy and security, the removal of middlemen, and more effective and transparent processes.The study concludes by discussing Web 3.0's future and its potential effects on several sectors, including ecommerce, social media, finance, and healthcare.The paper concludes that while there are still challenges that need to be addressed, the decentralized web is likely to continue to evolve and play an increasingly important role in the future of the internet.
The new generation of the web is characterized by decentralization, transparency, greater user autonomy, and privacy on one hand, while providing marketing professionals with increased opportunities and space for creativity, with a focus on user experience, and the establishment of relationships and communities before, during, and after product sales. This paper explores the opportunities offered by the new web generation in the field of marketing, identifies new tools that have been developed based on Web3 technologies, and analyzes their use for marketing purposes. The goal of the research presented in this paper is to enhance the theoretical framework of marketing strategies and techniques by analyzing the existing practical applications of Web3 technologies in this field and examining the awareness of potential users regarding key concepts, as well as assessing their prior exposure and the effects of Web3 marketing. Based on the literature review, an analysis of successful case studies, and the conducted research, conclusions were made on the current market penetration of Web3 and guidelines have been defined for planning marketing activities carried out within the Web3 environment.
Abstract Distributed ledger technology (DLT) is a disruptive technology with the potential of improving extended enterprise (EE) which comprises organizations that combine their capabilities and knowhow to achieve a common goal. Within the extended enterprise, governance enables distributed ledger control and stewardship and provides effective ways for enforcing ledger access and ownership policies. Although research related to DLT has received attention from academics and industries, the decentralized governance perspective of DLT remains less explored, and it is uncertain how decisions are made concerning the deployment of DLT within EE. These call for governance policies to protect the interests and needs of all stakeholders within the extended enterprise. Therefore, there is need for research that provides insight regarding the decentralized governance of DLT, showing how stakeholders and actors within EE make informed decisions. Accordingly, grounded on academic literature, this study develops governance of DLT framework for extended enterprises which comprises DLT governance dimensions, stakeholder/actors, and DLT governance mechanisms. The findings also present the governance actors and categories of DLTs, potentials, and challenges regarding decentralized governance of DLT in extended enterprises. Findings provide implications to enterprises, researchers, practitioners, industries, and policymakers on the concept of decentralized governance for organizational transformation. Finally, findings from this research are instrumental for designing governance policies to support DLT implementation and stimulate potential research within this direction.