Can crowdsourcing be used to manipulate open networks?
Derek Powazek interviews Ragnar Danneskjold of Subvert & Profit
Ragnar Danneskjold does not exist. The name was dreamed up by Ayn Rand for a rebellious pirate in her seminal book, "Atlas Shrugged." In the book, he's part criminal, part intellectual - a man who does bad things for good reasons.
Now the name has been taken by a 19-year-old American. As the creator of Subvert and Profit, a site that makes a business out of gaming social media site Digg for paying advertisers, there are a lot of people who'd like to know his real name.
Like Rand's pirate, Danneskjold talks revolution, but is not afraid of getting his hands dirty. But is he really a Robin Hood for Web 2.0 or just a crowdhacking profiteer? Derek Powazek conducted this interview for AssignmentZero to find out.
UPDATE: After completing this interview, the Digg account I'd used to test Subvert & Profit was disabled by Digg. The arms race continues.
Derek Powazek: What's your elevator pitch for Subvert and Profit?
Ragnar Danneskjold: Subvert and Profit fills the niche market for 'darker' crowdsourced actions. Beginning by operating a black market for votes on social bookmarking services, S&P will bootstrap itself towards operating a full-fledged crowdsourcing marketplace for clandestine actions on the Internet. Striving to maintain our allure and underground appeal, we seek to represent the fundamentally subversive nature of the Internet.
