Category: Media / Sociology

MySpace Global Competition

MySpace Aims for a Global Audience, and Finds Some Stiff Competition – New York Times

This article has grown a bit stale, but I couldn’t let it pass by. The trouble that MySpace faces in expanding worldwide shows that for a social network website to be successful, it must have both a good design and win in terms of network effects.

I am a MySpace user, and to editorialize for a moment, I think that its design stinks.
While many (myself included) gripe about the poorly thought out interface, one thing that many hold out as MySpace’s primary strength is how it lets every user customize their own page. Unfortunately, this is done entirely through css editing, which is onerous to both the casual user who isn’t familiar with programming and the css coder who is used to standard markup (here are two great examples of improving both MySpace’s home page and the profile page).

I would argue that MySpace got where it is today by benefit of network effects. Much like the telephone, which wasn’t completely useful until everyone got one, the value in MySpace comes from all of your friends having a page. In some ways, it’s like an online party where everyone is invited–if all of your friends are there, it’s only natural to try it out.

However, in the global marketplace there are existing social networking sites (like Cyworld) which already have an established user-base. If MySpace doesn’t have some compelling design or feature to draw these users to their product (even to be used concurrently with another), there’s little chance that it will catch on. Unfortunately, I’ve read elsewhere that MySpace is reluctant to engage in any common standards which would allow social networking sites to communicate with each other. My guess is this their realization of the importance of network effects and the problems of bad design.

A Recent Copyright Discussion

Someone on an e-mail list asked for opinions on the legality of a program called “Tunebite,” which allows one to strip the rights management limitations from a number of music file formats. What was interesting about the conversation was the wide variations in interpretations of the law. One poster was satisfied with the fact that Tunebite’s website states that the program’s functionality was legal, while another found that Apple’s licensing agreement (the company referred to by example) must be followed under all circumstances.

My take was that using a program like this is legally questionable, but ultimately amounts to an individual decision about risk/benefit. I’m not aware of decisions explicitly stating whether a license agreement trumps all other copyright arguments like fair use, first sale, etc. (the click-wrap and the DeCSS cases approach these issues, but don’t address them directly).

However, the truly interesting thing in my mind is the wide disparity in ways that the individuals participating in this conversation were constructing the law of copyright–and doing so in ways that impact their actions and compliance with the law. Dialogs such as this (and this one I just came across while reading the news) might be argued to impact on how we all see and understand the law.

What is Web 2.0?

Tim Berners-Lee on Web 2.0: “nobody even knows what it means”

I haven’t listened to the interview yet, but it looks as though the inventor of the Web isn’t too hot on the idea of Web 2.0 as something new. Specifically, he argues that the original web acted as a collaborative space.

For geeks like me who were learning html in 1995, that might have been partially true, but there are a number of emergent aspects which I would argue make the ‘connecting of people’ more of a reality:

  • Greater interactivity through scripting and databases has brought the web beyond just static pages,
  • Greater attention to design has made using web pages, and even publishing much easier (think Blogger), and finally
  • Greater connections are being made between content points. Digg, delicious, trackbacks and other collaborative/responsive linking and moderation is tying the web much closer together than simple static links.
  • (edit: add to this extensible web applications and open web services/APIs which allow for greater customization of experience)

Sure, this might not be “2.0,” but the name does indicate what has been happening on the web: something new which has even more greatly democratized mass communication.

Group response to the RIAA video

RIAA copyright education contradictory, critics say | CNET News.com

It looks as though a number of groups are going to “issue a joint statement condemning some statements on the Recording Industry Association of America’s video.” Pointing out the discrepancies and generous interpretations of the law must be done, but I hope that the statement also notes the role that Educause played in the creation of the video.

“First, we were told we should not enforce our rights,” said an RIAA representative responding to critics of the video. “Now we are told education is wrong, too. We won’t accept such a do-nothing approach. We’ll continue to work with respected higher-education groups to engage students to think critically about these issues.”

This RIAA spokesperson has received an important message: education about copyright is not the answer. For the public to truly accept and adhere to copyright law, we should attempt to open a dialogue between owners and users. If the public is alowed to have a stake in the law they are expected to adhere to, there may be greater compliance than in a law which is imposed on them.
For more on the video and the role of Educause, see the last few posts under “Copyright.”