Tidal wave of ‘massive file-sharing’
p2p news / p2pnet: As Rupert Murdoch discovered when he bought MySpace, social networks can be assets or liabilities and, " While I’ve generally been quite positive about the strategic implications of media companies owning a social network, indulge me for a moment as I now go in the opposite direction by painting a potential ‘nightmare’ scenario," posts Robert Young on ZDNet’s Between the Lines blog.
"Last weekend, Mark Pincus laid out some interesting thoughts on the future direction of social networks," says Young. "Although Mark didn’t explicitly say it this way, Hollywood needs to move away from the notion that all P2P is evil. I interpreted his vision as stating that the next generation of social networking was essentially going to adopt key architectural components of what many would recognize as a P2P network. We also all found out last week that AOL is about to upgrade its instant messaging platform, AIM, with social networking capabilities into what many are calling a ‘MySpace killer’."
IM hooked up to social networking is an interesting proposition, says the post. However, Young believes a consequence likely to present itself but which he bets will go "unintended," centres on the possibility of IM platforms morphing into social networks, in which case, "it’s quite possible the transition will unexpectedly unleash the next tidal wave of massive file-sharing".
For most, "showing the world which music and videos you like is a big part of demonstrating who you are as an individual," he states.
"In fact, social networks are proving to be a highly useful resource for the discovery and recommendation of all sorts of art forms and cultural products. But instead of simply declaring what you like, social networks turbo-charged with P2P capabilities will allow users to actually share. Compound this with the fact that social networks overlap… what I call the ‘Venns effect’ (as in Venn diagrams)… and any one person can effectively have access to thousands or even millions of other connected ‘friends’ beyond their immediate social circle. So if all of a sudden, one-click file-sharing is added to this equation, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what will probably happen next.
"I’d even be comfortable predicting that such a P2P-based social networking service could quite easily trump MySpace as the next ‘must-have’ for teens."
Back to Hollywood, before the studios can be open to accepting what’s likely to be the future of media distribution, "At the end of the day, the most important factor that will ultimately influence the final outcome rests on the media companies themselves, and whether they try to fight it [P2P-based social networking], or co-opt it to their benefit," says Young, adding he plans to continue his thoughts in a future post. So stay tuned.
(Thanks, Chris)
Also See:
blog – Next generation social networks & unintended consequences, April 26, 2006
