[Air-l] MySpace sued again ...

[Darren Purcell]

richard.ling at telenor.com wrote:

>Hi,
>
>It is interesting that there is all the legal stuff here.  At the same
>time there is a perceptual issue.  As I recall, one of the things that
>helped the migration from MUDS and MOOS over to IM was that IM had a
>buddy list.  The MUDS and MOOS were seen as being populated by weird
>people and in IM you had a bit more control over who you interacted
>with.
>
>My Space goes back to the more open social networking idea (with all the
>positive and negative sides of that).  The fact people perceive them are
>being slimy places to be (or that parents get that impression) will
>perhaps change the willingness of people to hang out there.
>
>"If we believe something to be real, it is real in its consequences"  -
>W.I. Thomas  
>
>Rich L. 
>
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It is a perceptual issue of space and territory. The youth will embrace 
it as a space because it is edgy, terrifies their parents, and they can 
enjoy it. My fellow parents will vilify it as a space they don't 
understand and scream for regulation. I don't see the lawsuits stopping 
anything, and in fact, I am surprised that several posters are 
calculating potential losses for this project. Murdoch's advisors  must 
be thinking long term, and the exposure, negative or not, can't be all 
bad, at least amongst his target audience of teens and young adults.

Think about:

1) Publicity (what is the adage, any publicity is good publicity?)
2) Government regulation threat which means the firm can

    a. proactively set the standard (and look safe in the eyes of 
parents, and aggressively market this "safety", no matter how one 
constructs it.)
    b. take on the regulations imposed and throw their hands up, and 
continue to play in a more level playing fields as other networking 
sites have to conform to the standards that Murdoch's firm will likely 
influence.


Darren