Social Performances: Understanding Open Sharing and Remix Culture

Much has been written about the birth of a new "participative web" and how user-generated content will usher in a new era of creativity (5). However, there is inadequate explanation for what motivates individuals to openly share content online, and even allow relative strangers to remix and reuse their work. My research seeks to understand the phenomenon of content sharing and reuse taking place on the Internet today. In this paper, I present the theoretical framework of "Social Performances" to investigate the motivations for open sharing and reuse in the context of an online music sharing and remixing community, ccMixter. I also present preliminary findings about open sharing behavior in ccMixter.