MySpace January Newsletter

January 2008 New MySpace Feature: Get Your Face on the Front of MySpace News! MySpace News is now live. Come on by and comment, blog and bulletin about your favorite news articles to millions of people. Click here. New MySpace Feature: Call your friends with MySpaceIM with Skype! Talk for free (yes, free!) with your MySpace friends using MySpaceIM with Skype. Calling is easy. You can even leave voicemails or get your own number and answer incoming calls from landlines and cell phones while you�re online. Get MySpaceIM with Skype today. MySpace Event: MySpace Music Tour Featuring JUSTICE The Spring MySpace Music Tour Features our favorite French DJ duo � JUSTICE! Other artists include Diplo, Busy P, DJ Mehdi, Chromeo and Fancy! Check out photos, exclusive Tour videos, and more! See you at the Tour in North America this Spring! Global Spotlight on Brazil Last month, NX Zero, Brazil�s most popular band, kicked off the official launch of MySpace Brazil with an awesome Secret Show in Sao Paulo. Fans lined up 34 hours early on what was possibly the rainiest day of the year! Featured Artist: JUSTICE With 2007's �, Justice created one of the most original albums of the year, drawing on old soul, vintage heavy metal and French techno beats. This unique combination resulted in widespread critical acclaim and even a handful of Grammy nominations. This March, the duo will headline the MySpace Music tour. Featured Artist: DIPLO For the past five years, Diplo has stood tall as one of the underground's most respected DJs and producers. In that time, he has released a handful of cultishly beloved instrumental hip hop albums and worked heavily with artists like M.I.A . and Kanye West. Along with Justice, Diplo will be appearing on the MySpace music tour this March. Featured Comedian: Michael Showalter Check out his new CD Sandwiches and Cats or see Michael on the road this month with Michael Ian Black. MySpaceTV: Primetime on MySpaceTV Heroes, SNL, The Simpsons, 30 Rock, The Office, 24, Friday Night Lights, Family Guy, So You Think You Can Dance, Scrubs, Prison Break, Monk -- the list goes on! Find clips and full episodes of your favorite TV shows, plus cool movies, MySpace Original programs and more. Your shows on your time. MySpaceTV Primetime. MySpace Music EXCLUSIVE: Featured Channels National Geographic brings you Shark Vs. Octopus, CelebTV covers Dr. Phil visiting Britney Spears post-meltdown. Find new animation, cool cars, celebrity clips, how-to videos, topical news, exercise tips and more in MySpaceTV�s Featured Channel line-up. MySpaceTV brings you the best clips from brands you know and brands you�ll love to find. Facelift Car Loses Wheels Wii Sports Accident Ghetto iPhone MySpace EXCLUSIVE: Artist on Artist with Mark & Samantha Ronson In the spirit of the new year and all things family, we exclusively have an extra-familial Artist on Artist interview between your favorite brother/sister musician duo, Mark and Samantha Ronson. Check it out! MySpace EXCLUSIVE: Artist on Artist with Jennifer Jason Leigh and Marc Jacobs Jennifer Jason Leigh sits down with fashion icon friend (and fan) Marc Jacobs in this exclusive MySpace Artist on Artist interview. Check it out! Check out a few things you may have missed last month! MySpace Secret Standup presents: Chelsea Handler Chelsea Handler performed in Denver, CO as part of the MySpace Secret Standup Series. Check out the comedian and event here! MySpace Impact Awards: International Development Winner Announced: Blood Water Mission! MySpace announces its 13th Impact Award Winner, Blood Water Mission. Read about its commitment to the rescue from disease and poverty that plagues so many communities in Africa. Learn more about the organization and find ways to get involved now!

The Next Social Network: WordPress

Could open-source blogging platform WordPress serve as your next social networking profile? Chris Messina, co-founder of Citizen Agency, thinks so. He’s started a project called DiSo, for distributed social networking, that aims to “build a social network with its skin inside out.” DiSo will first look to WordPress as its foundation.

This could be the next step towards the unified social graph that some technologists wish for. WordPress suits the purpose because it provides a person-centric way of coming online, offers an extensible architecture, and already has some features — such as an OpenID and a blogroll plugin — that can be pressed into social networking service. And its users represent exactly the sort of audience that might appreciate the permanent, relatively public identity that DiSo aims to offer.

Why blogs and not Facebook or MySpace

In contrast to social networking, blogging offers a person-centric way for individuals to come online. A social network like Facebook gives you your own place online, but it’s not really your own place. As Copyblogger Brian Clark recently said in a blog post, “For me, there’s really no appeal in spending a lot of time creating ‘user-generated’ content via a social networking application. That’s like remodeling the kitchen in a house you rent.”

Clark was responding to an ongoing conversation launched by blogger and cartoonist Hugh MacLeod, who proposed that blogging is far more important to him than social networking. Bloggers including Stowe Boyd and Darren Rowse seconded the idea. This growing disenchantment with social networking and return to blogging suggests that in the future we could see a migration, at least among tech bloggers, towards more distributed social networking — along the lines of what Messina envisions.

http://gigaom.com/2007/12/11/the-next-social-network-wordpress/