The Future of Myspace

Money
Myspace does not currently accept payment in any form outside of Ad space and their iPhone and Android app's ad space. I don't know where Myspace will move with the future of BitCoin; will it start charging people for use or to listen to music? I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Jobs
Myspace is currently hiring for offices in Brooklyn, NY and in the UK, but recently suffered a massive lay-off, so I don't know how easy it would be to find a job there (or how profitable). They seem to be looking for Graphic Designers and Social Media Marketing Administrators. I don't see a lot of other openings or position types listed online.

Industry
Myspace does not currently accept payment for any sharing of content on Myspace, but there could be a system set up to accept payment for downloads of videos or song downloads for new and upcoming artists. They could also set up some sort of music-mentorship program for people who want to learn what the industry is like or learn a new skill. There is a market for things like this, but Myspace has not yet evolved to meet those industry needs.

Net Neutrality
In The Internet's Own Boy, the SOPA and PIPA blackouts were mentioned to be widespread across major internet sites, but Myspace did not participate in this movement. This could have been due to lack of administration during the business change-over, or it could be due to lack of interest in the site. It was not disclosed why they did not participate. Net Neutrality is a good thing for a site like Myspace, where it is not a leading site, it may not get the bandwidth it deserves without the movement. I was initially surprised it did not participate in the original blackout, but then I took note of the timeline of the event and the timeline of the company's new ownership, and it made more sense.

Open Source
Currently, Myspace supports the embedding of open source widgets on its pages, but the overall site is not open source. It uses SQL Server for its database of information. Most of the rest of the site design uses other Microsoft applications. There isn't much promotion of open source software or concepts on the site or in its documentation.

Influence and Attention on Myspace
Myspace certainly has it's major users: big bands and big artists as well as those promoted. There are artists and bands with more connections than others, and those are considered the most "influential". The main promotion for popular Myspace users is the home page where popular videos and mixes are displayed to all users. These would be your Top 40 artists that are typically thought to be the most popular at the time. This changes, of course, as the top songs and top videos change.

My Future with Myspace
I will probably delete my profile once this project has ended. I dislike the interface, and I have other venues for finding music and music videos.

McLuhan and Morozov on Myspace

McLuhan

Myspace is an interesting way for the internet to help musicians collaborate in their field. There is a loss of privacy in them sharing their work, but they gain so much in return through being able to see the work of others. I would say McLuhan would be a fan of this site, because Myspace is working toward their medium (an online interface for musicians) to be the message (the music and the collaboration that comes out of their connectivity).

Morozov

Morozov may not have had too many problems with the site, since 1) you have the ability to have a private profile and 2) there is not much space for collaboration outside of the music industry, so there is not much content that can be released about a person that they cannot restrict or protect. It is a fairly safe site in that way. Myspace censors the type of content that can be uploaded (only photos/videos and music), which is closer to his ideal world than McLuhans in that respect.

The "Meme-ory" of Myspace

Myspace avoided the era of the Internet Meme, but the Internet Meme did not avoid Myspace. 

Myspace on Anonymity and Security

#NoEmail
You need an email to log into Myspace - this is something that has been a requirement through both versions of the site. However, now you can also link to your Facebook or Twitter account to log in (which, guess what...both need emails).

This challenges the concept of Anonymity on Myspace - you officially have an email address or another account linked to your name. It is hard to say how easy it would be to find (based on the fact that Myspace's security policy is the same that it was in 2013.. if not earlier).

TOR
The fact that you have a recognizable log-in that is associated with an email account makes this a site that is not safe to log into when using TOR Onion software if you are trying to protect your identity or location. I guess if you just use TOR for fun with no intention of staying anonymous, there isn't anyone stopping you from using Myspace.

Multiple/Fake Profiles
As far as I can tell based on documents found online, Myspace does not require you to have your true first and last name as your name on this site (though most people do), which does open you up to the concept of having fake profiles or hard-to-find profiles. When you log in with another Social Media service, this all goes out the window with your other log-in credentials already being pulled from whichever site (Facebook or Twitter). Please keep this in mind.

Private Profiles
Private vs Public profiles are both available on OLD and NEW Myspace. The "public" profile option automatically gives anyone permission to see your profile, information, photos, videos, mixes, or other shared content on the site, but a private profile does not allow for this much information to be available.

Above are examples of a private vs public profile view. Private profiles are very restricted unless you connect with the user in a two-way connection. Public profiles allow you to follow another user and stream their content into your feed or view their content on their profile.

I am unsure what form of security they use to protect the profiles - this is due to the lack of available or updated information on the topic.

Pew Reports
I did my Pew Report presentation on the topic of Anonymity and Security Online, and it relates to the concepts of people looking to have privacy in their profile (which myspace provides) and their desire to be able to be anonymous online (which Myspace provides if you use a fake email or hold a fake name on your account and choose not to log in with Facebook or Twitter).

Myspace and Dating

OLD Myspace
Romantic relationships during the time of OLD Myspace were able to be formed or grown with the presence of a site that allowed you to see into someone's personal style, into their thoughts through the use of blogs, and into their musical taste through widgets that allowed playlists. It was a place where people had to agree to be friends on both ends rather than just "follow" one another's feed. It was a place where relationships were made public by being one of someone's Top Friends, or through having comments on one anothers' profile. This was an era that allowed for the curation of relationships based on all interests, even though the site was never made specifically for this purpose.

NEW Myspace
Romantic relationships now, during the era of NEW Myspace are harder to come by, since the site is more geared toward people following their interests in music or media than finding people. It is still possible to meet people through "connecting" (or following) one another, but it is much more of a rarity. The site is definitely not targeting strictly single people, and there is no advertisement saying that it is a great place to find love (aside from a love of music). I wouldn't recommend this as a dating site also due to the lack of ability to fluidly communicate or share thoughts. The user interface doesn't allow much personal presentation or discussion beyond mixes or photos uploaded and a messaging feature (that feels like it hasn't been developed since the re-release before 2013).

Carr vs. Shirky vs. Myspace

Carr's take on Myspace *probably*
OLD Myspace had potential with the ability for users to post Blog posts (that could be any length), but it still did not adhere to learning large amounts of information all the time. Many profiles used graphics, videos, or music to display their messages, but overall it was a social networking site for people to talk amongst one another and share shallow ideas. It is simply a distraction to learning. Just like these ridiculous profile backgrounds!

NEW Myspace is even worse in this regard - it only holds videos or music. There is now no way to share ideas through the blog feature that was disabled. I definitely don't have use for this site now unless I want to go find distracting music or videos of music.

Shirky's take on Myspace *probably*
OLD Myspace allowed people to share ideas through blogs! That is incredible! The online community could get together and if someone wrote content, others could comment on their work to make this a beneficial tool for humanity! I also love the ability for people to express themselves through sharing music or photos on the site. Once again, online collaboration at its finest! I also enjoy that users can utilize HTML to customize their profiles. That's a great way for people to learn a new tool that is used by the entire internet!

NEW Myspace is definitely a letdown for the online collaboration of idea sharing (that isn't through music or video). I disagree with the removal of the Blog feature and ability to customize profiles in HTML, but I love the collaboratory environment provided for musicians. The interface of this site could definitely use some work to improve these collaborative environments, though.


**All quotes here are expressions of Brittney King pretending to be Carr and Shirky. None of this was actually said by either researcher**

Quantification of Self

Quantification Features of Myspace

*only available on OLD Myspace

**only available on NEW Myspace

Top Friends

Top Friends is the ability for a person to rank their most influential connections on the site. In my pre-teen days, this meant determining who were your best friends of all the people you were connected with, and proudly displaying them on your page while trying not to make anyone upset with their placement. Today, this allows users to show their most influential connections, whether through being respected in music or media, through being bands that tour together, or by showing artists with similar style or taste in music choices.

"Top Friends" are allowed in groups of 4, 8, 12, 16, or none at all. "None at all" was the least dramatic option back when I used the platform to socialize.

I remember argument after argument of people being "not in their significant other's Top 8" or "being lower than her/him". This is a way that others were able to quantify their friendships with other people. It showed who was friends with who, who thought of you as a close friend, and how many people saw you that way. It was much more personal than I feel it was intended to be.

In NEW Myspace, this feature still exists, but none of my "Top Friends" still use the site. Musicians, however, do use the feature to show influences in their music, friends of their band, bands they tour/toured with, and those that are similar to their style for other users to find available on the platform. It is a much less personal feature today than it once was, but it is a more beneficial tool in the music or media industry, because for them, all publicity is good publicity for their music.

Connection Numbers

This is a proudly displayed statistic at the top of everyone's profile that shows how many people you follow and how many people follow you. OLD Myspace had this feature similar to Facebook's "Friend" feature, but NEW Myspace uses this more like Twitter's "Follow" counter tool, where information is now sent one or both ways instead of only both ways.

This number can show how popular a band or artist is compared to others.

Comments*

This feature was removed from the NEW Myspace, but on the OLD one, it was used regularly like the Facebook Wall feature to show who was contacting you and who you were responding to. This showed popularity or friendships in their most public form. This was the allowed feature until Private Messaging and Chat found their way onto Myspace years later.

This feature is, however, still available on Photos, Videos, or Mixes, but no longer on the profile itself.

Page Views

Page Views are still calculated and recorded on the site. This is something OLD Myspace did to show popularity in your profile without revealing who viewed your site, and the functionality of NEW Myspace still keeps it anonymous, but now tells you when your profile was viewed.

This is a screenshot of my own profile views. Note: I'm not very popular on Myspace.

This statistic can be very beneficial to artists who need to keep track of when they are being followed the most or when their content is being most viewed to show their "Top Single" or to give Myspace information to promote them on their new News Feed-like home page.

Hearts

Hearts are the ability to "like" something that a user posts. Hearts do not show who liked something, but show how many people liked the content. A user cannot "heart" something more than one time, so each heart has to be a unique profile. This is a good way for artists to tally which of their photos or videos needs to be promoted most or is already very popular.

Note: all hearts were reset with the Myspace Reboot of January 1, 2013.

Number of Mixes**, Photos, Videos

This statistic may show how productive a user is in the industry or how often they release new content. This is a self-quantification feature that allows a user to change it as they add or remove new content from their profile. This content is able to be blocked from non-connections or they are able to be "me only" viewable (which is what all my pictures are currently set to).

Judith Donath, Barry Wellman, and Designs for Living Online as a Networked Individual

OLD vs NEW Myspace
The Myspace as I remember it in the past is what I will refer to as OLD Myspace, and Myspace as it currently lives, updated for the music industry, is what I call NEW Myspace.

OLD Myspace
The platform was built for people to be in contact with one another through the ability to "connect" with one another's profiles. This allowed users to see the content that they were approved to see, comment on anothers' page, see photos, blogs, and other provided widgets on the pages. The purpose of the site was to connect people. This is one of the first sites that I had the ability to use to be on my way to becoming a Networked Individual (Barry Wellman). It allows users to be their own person and connect accordingly. This is similar to LinkedIn's profile and connection feature today (but less advanced, of course).

Each user could customize their profile as they liked using HTML elements, backgrounds, images, and JavaScript widgets. This allowed people the freedom to express themselves through their profile. It could also be seen as a burden to the people who were not as tech-savvy, but Myspace allowed for that with the ability to choose a background color or plain site.

Above are examples of a plain Myspace site and one with a "layout" that was chosen and embedded using HTML under the Customize feature.

This allowed a user to show their personality through their profile more than just writing something about themselves. It also showed a person's tastes in colors, patterns, or favorite things without a viewer having to read about the person in their biography.

I found this decorating portion to be fun, and Judith Donath would have loved what it allowed users to express in the way they decorated their profile. It is a users' own personal space to do what they like with it. This is something most social media sites haven't brought back. You have to attain some sort of blog to have this kind of customization today (Tumblr, WordPress, Blogger, etc.).

NEW Myspace
Myspace still has the user profile feature on the platform, but there is now less interaction available on the profile, and more interaction on an overall-site scale. Myspace has now incorporated a system to allow users to view popular music or music videos that are viewed through the site (similar to a News Feed), and it has remove the option for users to incorporate HTML or JavaScript additions to their personal pages.

The blogs were also removed from the site, making it now a more media-focused platform. The shift from people being the important focus to music and media being the main focus is very obvious when viewing the site.

This is an example of a "new" Myspace profile. There is no ability to post comments, but you can now chat or message them, and you can still see videos or photos from the main profile. Doesn't this look a little bit like some other Social Media site we know?

Judith Donath would be shocked by all the changes made to this site to restrict user customization and the ability for users to express themselves over the platform. However, I feel that Myspace has done a good job shifting to the concept that they feel is most important: being media-centered.

Myspace's Timeline, The Gartner Hype Cycle, and The Future of Education

2003 : Innovation Trigger
Myspace was first launched in 2003 by Tom Anderson (You remember him right? Your first friend there?) and Chris DeWolfe, and was originally used by musicians to promote their music and it helped them to collaborate and become exposed to upcoming and existing artists.





2005-2007: Peak of Inflated Expectations
Myspace became very popular among teens and young adults to socialize amongst one another. This was when it became "cool" to have an online presence for my fellow pre-teens and me.



2008-2010: Trough of Disillusionment
This service was considered obsolete to my age demographic when Facebook, the "new trendy thing", began allowing younger users and implemented the concept of a News Feed, something Myspace failed to come up with before this time. There also became some backlash to Myspace's snazzy HTML when new social media sites, like Facebook, had cleaner, more simple looks.



2011: Slope of Enlightenment
Myspace seemed practically abandoned and forgotten when it was jointly purchased by Specific Media LLC and Justin Timberlake to be re-branded and re-focused on its initial demographic, musicians and music lovers. Myspace has now been re-built, and many features have been changed. For instance, blogs and custom HTML are no longer supported, but a News Feed for popular internet music and videos has now been incorporated.




20??: Plateau of Productivity
Myspace still has a long way to go before it is a valued site and resource for musicians. There are a lot of bugs in the navigation of the site, and it is still crowded with unused profiles that no longer hold value to the site. Do musicians use this site as regularly as they could? Is there a better alternative? Do people still think of Myspace at all? I guess we will have to wait and see.

Education and Myspace
Education is something that could do good things with the framework Myspace has built out, even though it is not currently used for this purpose. There could be a great way to teach people about old and new music through the site, as well as teach people new things about music: how to learn to play, how to get resources or inspiration for those looking to write, how to get in contact with potentially helpful people in the industry. There is a fan-base, now it just needs the inspiration to get started in something like this.