Microblogging, Stealing MySpace, and the Fakester Manifesto
Following Wikinonmics, I picked up another Web 2.0 book based on the MySpace craze. The book is titled “Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America“. I’m about 1/2 way through and am amazed at how the MySpace theme originated as a blatant ripoff of the original successful social media tool, Friendster.
Besides marketing, the book argues two main reasons for the sucess of MySpace over Friendster: Control and Anonymity. Friendster would limit the “degrees” of separation between friend requests, something both Facebook and MySpace dont do. Also, Friendster (originally) explicity forbid anyone from registering as a fictituous character, or organization. This upset some who believed that anonymity was part and parcel to free speech. They led an effort and published a “Fakester Manifesto” that echoes the Declaration of Independence:
“Identity is provisional. Who we are is whom we choose to be at any given moment, depending on personality, whim, temperament, or subjective need. No other person or organization can abridge that right, as shape-shifting is inherent to human consciousness, and allows us to thrive and survive under greatly differing circumstances by becoming different people as need or desire arises. By assuming the mantle of the Other, it allows us, paradoxically, to complete ourselves. Every day is Halloween.”
Read more about the struggle between the Friendster, MySpace, and Facebook phenomenon at: http://stephenlaughlin.posterous.com/struggling-with-an-online-identity#ixzz0DKCP3HQQ&B
The book is an easy and entertaining read that documents the brazen SDLC (software development lifecycle) methodologies that were employed. Release early, release often, functionality over quality….though not recommended or subscribed to here, it allowed the team to focus on features that users adopted, and can those which no one used.
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