[iDC] MySpace staff cuts

[David M. Berry]

I don't think that it has to be either 'open for-profit' or 'dirty 
corruption, vender backroom dealing, and other such nonsense' -- in any 
case behind the *appearance* of openness there is often a lot of 
corporate lobbying and PR. Also there are other models of collaboration 
and working together out there beyond these two (one thinks of the 
cooperative/mutual organisations, unions, charities etc). I also could 
not understand your comment that government had become 'for-profit'. 
Without a doubt some aspects of government have been privatised, or 
farmed out to the third sector, but I hardly think that one can claim 
that the state operates in the *same* way as a private corporation.  But 
perhaps the current financial crisis represents the best concrete 
example of the flaws in any claim for the superiority of for-profit 
incentivisation...

Best

David




danah boyd wrote:
> Well, I would argue that MySpace and Facebook are just more honest
> about their for-profit status than most government enterprises.
> Personally, I'd rather see institutions incentivized by open for-
> profit competition than dirty corruption, vender backroom dealing, and
> other such nonsense. If you don't think that the government has become
> for-profit, you're delusional. Or you haven't spent enough time on the
> Hill.
>
> On Jun 25, 2009, at 10:34 AM, Trebor Scholz wrote:
>
>    
>> "And this is just one aspect of what costs money inside large social
>> media operations.  There are a lot more parallels to cities than one
>> might think.  And just like it takes money to run the police force and
>> maintain the sewer system, it takes money to keep social media sites
>> functioning.  Someone's gotta foot the bill."
>>
>> Hi Danah,
>> Great to hear from you.
>> Well, you are right but that does not mean that no profit is being
>> made.
>> (We had that same discussion at the New School last year. )
>>
>>      
>>> The operating costs of online intermediaries --and MySpace in
>>> particular--
>>> are considerable and while the
>>> profits may not be as astronomical as analysts in Silicon Valley
>>> may have
>>> hoped, the corporate gains from the commoditization of networked
>>> publics are
>>> not a product of the imagination.
>>>        
>> Trebor
>>
>>
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>
> ------
>
> "taken out of context, i must seem so strange" -- ani
> http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/
> http://www.danah.org/
> @zephoria
>
>
>
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-- 

Dr David M. Berry

Media and Communications Department
School of Arts
University of Wales Swansea
Swansea
SA2 8PP
Wales, UK

Email: D.M.Berry at swansea.ac.uk
Tel: x2633
Web: http://www.swansea.ac.uk/staff/academic/Arts/berryd/
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