Darryl Woodford

These days, there’s so much social capital invested in Facebook, that even if there was an alternative, would people really leave? There’s almost no change that Facebook would realistically make that would result in me deleting/moving, until and unless the majority of my friends / online contacts also moved.

This is the same hold that exists in Virtual Worlds, and is one of the reasons I think there is a strong argument for better regulation of these environments.

But Google shouldn’t be the only party concerned about Facebook’s rapid ascent — the lack of a Facebook alternative is a threat to consumer choice, providing no escape route when things turn sour.

No real alternative

Facebook’s privacy issues over recent months have opened our eyes to a grim reality: There is no real alternative. While dissatisfied MySpace users hopped over to Facebook, there is no truly competitive social network to which disgruntled Facebook users can elope.

The demand for a legitimate alternative is so great that a project called Diaspora was able to raise more than $200,000 from Web users to develop its “privacy aware, personally controlled, do-it-all, open source social network.”

Until such a rival emerges, Facebook has little incentive to maintain user trust — the only option available to unhappy Facebookers is to delete their accounts and lose contact with their friends.

via Cashmore: Google building a Facebook rival? Let’s hope so – CNN.com.

I’m writing this at 22:30, having been awake barely 5 hours, and getting ready to head to the Pig & Whistle with some friends (Brit, Aussie and American) for the England vs USA game, which kicks off at 0430 local. Unfortunately, because of Aussie laws, we actually need to be at the pub before 3 (we’re aiming for about 0230), because they then have to lock the doors, despite the fact they can serve alcohol ’til 5 (and you have until 0520 to drink up). It’s likely to be a month of screwed up sleep, though France & Uruguay managed to put me to sleep pretty effectively last night As I write this, Korea have gone up 2-0 against Greece, so I guess those in Cyprus won’t be in such a good mood as they were during Euro 2004

Life in Brisbane is great, and my thesis continues to plod along at a steady pace; I have now submitted the Stage 2 and (touch wood) it seems to be proceeding through the administrative processes without problem. I have shifted focus a bit from Star Trek Online (which frankly doesn’t seem to be an interesting example of much — it’s a single player game with a bit of multiplayer functionality, and none of the interest that is attached to other environments for now) to Eve Online, which despite being around a fair while has yet to attract much academic focus, yet has it’s own policy committee and a relatively open discussion with players who shape the game far more than is possible with STO. I continue to look at Second Life & Project Entropia, and on the fringes am looking at some games like NationStates and A Tale in the Desert, which provide some interesting examples of in-game regulation. I have installed on this blog a digress.it mini-blog which will contain chunks of my thesis as I go, and I welcome constructive feedback on that as things progress.

It doesn’t look like I’m going to make it back to the UK (or Cyprus / Europe in general) this year, though family are coming out next Easter which will be nice, and I learnt today that friends of the family will also be out next Easter as their daughter is doing a year at Griffith on the Gold Coast, so will be nice to catch up with them who I haven’t spoken to in maybe 5+ years now. I’m planning to make a trip back to Europe next winter (Nov/Dec 2011), where I intend to visit Iceland/CCP, and have even got a good friend lined up to help out, which is something of a relief, and will be a great help. I also intend to speak to regulatory bodies in the gambling industry, however the details of that are still TBC. Not quite sure what else I’ll fit into that Europe trip or possibly a separate one over Christmas, but may stop by the UK, Cyprus and possibly Denmark for varying time periods — a lot depends on money/timings, and what terms are applied to any additional funding.

Well I think that’s a wrap for now. As I move now past the stage 2 and onto the actual research I will post more, and I hope to start getting small sections (which may become papers in their own right) up into the digress.it system within the next 6 months or so.

Come on England!

OK, so since last time I updated this blog I have:

• Paid about 7 months worth of hosting
• Submitted formal PhD applications to QUT in Australia, and ITU in Denmark.
• Been accepted into QUT
• Sold all my stuff in Denmark (this blog temporarily housed a for-sale list )
• Spent a couple of months in the UK, visiting friends & family.
• Flown to Brisbane via Changi, Singapore (note to self: never do this in one trip again; 26 hours of travelling = feel like death)
• Re-purchased most of the stuff I sold in Copenhagen (hey, it’s newer versions and beat shipping it!)
• Dealt with a ton of administration here in Brisbane; everything from scholarships (entered incorrectly) to office space applications (still not got a desk), including health insurance, bank accounts, tax numbers, and a lot I’ve probably forgotten.
• Been to numerous orientations, all with useful snippets of information but couched between stuff I’m being told for the second, third or fourth time (the faculty orientation snuck in first).
• Started drafting an ethics clearance, raising numerous issues of project scope & methodology (more on this in a post next week).
• Started a rough outline of my Stage 2 application, which is basically a progress-check due in late May.
• Met some good people, ate at a couple of decent restaurants with good company.
• Attended lectures for the first time in a couple of years; primarily research skills (some useful, some not).
• Attended IT Lab classes for the first time in about 6 years; again useful snippets, but good people.

I think that’s about it. Now I’m settled (and actually doing things other than sitting in front of a computer moving numbers about 16 hours a day), I will try and update this again. Quick updates and random photos tend to end up on twitter (@dpwoodford), so check there too! Current plan is 1 or 2 updates a week, and I also hope to publish parts of my research as my PhD progresses.