The Author and Authorship in the Internet Society. New Perspectives for Scientific Communication

The Internet is the most recent and relevant innovation in the field of media communication, as well as the medium that reproduces most of the characteristics of global society. In trying to describe contemporary society, we cannot neglect the social implication of the web. Our assumption is that the evolution of the Internet has led to problematic effects on the relevance of concepts such as individuality, author, authorship and copyright, as commonly used up till now. The first part of the article focuses on individuality as a means to describe individual actors and social structures in the first modernity, paying particular attention to the idea of the author as an individual in the field of intellectual products. New communication forms online make the connection between the individuality of the author and the text weaker and less recognizable. The second part develops the theme of scientific knowledge in contemporary society, with regard to scholarly authorship. The Internet has produced deep transformations in scholarly publications. Technical and structural characteristics of the Internet suggest possibilities for a reorganization of the scientific system towards the replacement of authorship and reputation with innovative mechanisms of information processing and selection.