Guests Job Cohen and Lucas Oost Lievense expand further on the fundamental ways in which digital media has affected the relationships between the mechanics of the political system.

More then two weeks ago the Dutch digital world got surprised by the message that Sellaband.com had died. The music website that allows artists to raise money from fans and in order to record an album, did not turn out to be as successful as people thought it was. Founder Tim Betist, who left the company two years ago out of disappointment, explained that there had been too much bad management. Sellaband produced and distributed the CD’s of its artists by itself. Wrong, says Betist. It would have been better if the company had outsourced these tasks. By not doing so, the artists never became famous outside the Sellaband community. Annother critique of Betist is that Sellaband never had a quality filter for artists. Every artist, no matter how little talented, could have been part of the site. More quality is better for the brand, Betist says. After the bankruptcy, he suggested his old company to repay all the fans that have invested their money in their artists.

But a couple of days later German investors took over the bankrupt company. Now it is called Sellaband GmbH and gets a new chance. Director Dagmar Heijmans told me on the phone that he is very happy with the new developments. If Sellaband learns from its mistakes, there can still be a good future for the site. Thanks to the possibilities of web 2.0, Sellaband can make it happen, the artists will break trough in a more democratic way with a support of their fans.  And in according to the latest developments, Heijmans will come to our Open Thread radio studio to talk to me about what went wrong and about the future.

Kemal Rijken, Amsterdam NL

The new site of minister Rouvoet looks pretty. Parents who want to learn and debate about parenthood can find a lot of tools and information. There are question lists, several forums and there is an interactive map on which parents can see where the ministry organizes activities for them. All meant to learn about experiences and parenthood. This interactive site will probably reach a couple of parents that are open to such websites in general and are very digital minded. But what about parents who don’t have Internet or only use it for their own pleasure? How about parents who have so much problems of their own that they don’t have time to rethink the way they are raising their kids? What about parents that drink every day or have to work two jobs to keep the family going? There’s a big chance that these people won’t go online to learn to be better parents. They are probably the ones that need help the most.

Such a site as this one shows that there is going to be a bigger split between haves and have-nots in the digital world. In this case the haves are the parents that have a good Internet connection, are online a lot and can find minister Rouvoet’s site. The have nots are the troubled families that have too much problems of their own, and that aren’t very fond of the web. Too bad, because the have-nots could use a site such as this one. The reality is that the haves on the web get it all: digital minded parents who feel the need to talk about their way of parenthood have a spot online. They can learn from each other and that is a good thing. And that’s the reality for now.

Kemal Rijken, Amsterdam NL

Episode Notes:

In this, the second episode of our Politics thread, presented by Kemal Rijken we examine how political activist groups are using technology to choose their issues and focus their efforts as we talk to David Babbs of 38°.

We also discuss how technology gives an identity to a group as Lisa Graves of The Center for Media and Democracy tells us about their sourcewatch.com and prwatch.com sites.

London Correspondence piece by Juki Juks

With the new Dutch travel device, people can travel all over the country without buying tickets at desks and machines. It  sounds as a perfect system, but it’s not perfect yet. Since its introduction  there are few problems: subway gates that don’t open, cards that don’t register the  travel amounts of travelers and stressed people who get the bleeps at the check-in machine. But one of the biggest hidden issues is  the introduction of these cards to students. In the Netherlands every Dutch  student has its own student travel pass (named ov-studentenkaart). With this pass they can travel all over the country for free during their  study years. It’s a very handy device for students who have to commute every  day. Before the new ov-chipkaart was introduced, the student travel pass was a plastic pass with a student’s picture on it. Now students get their  new passes: a small plastic card with a chip in it that registers where,  when and how they travel. Though this privacy element sounds as a big concern,  most of the students don’t care much about this.

Almost every student received his ov-chipkaart in January. The only thing that they had to do was activate their new  travel passes, but a lot of them just won’t do it. Public transport companies  have been complaining about the laziness of the students and haven’t been able to do  much. That changed last month when Apple launched its newest product: the iPad. The  iPad is a cool, flashy mini laptop to play with when you are bored. iPad  can be used almost everywhere and it connects you with the Internet whenever you  want. “This is the ideal new toy for students that have to commute. Let’s try  to lure them with this new gadget”, the directors of the transport boards must  have thought. But this is a ridiculous thought. Not only does it show the unrealistic thinking of the companies, it also shows that students who are lazy get rewarded  with an iPad for their behavior.

And the question that people could ask themselves is this: should corporation promise goods that aren’t even available in  Europe yet? How are they going to buy it? How long must the lazy students wait  to take action in order to win one of the iPads? And also: Will this gesture do? There are thousands of students who have not activated their ov-chipkaart. The odds that one of them will win one of the ten iPads, that aren’t yet  for sale, are very, very small. So why should they activate their passes?  All rhetoric questions, but one thing is certain: Apple has got a lot of free publicity  in the Netherlands when the public transport companies announced their new  move. Let’s wait and see what happens next. To be continued.

Kemal Rijken, Amsterdam NL

Maybe, however, a more succinct point has to be raised. Perhaps – with regard to certain elements of online industry, anyway – there are no answers. Screenwriter William Goldman has famously espoused that the movie business creed should be ‘nobody knows anything.” Should this also be applied to the world of the internet?

Nobody really knows where the next social networking phenomenon or similarly big site/idea will come from – we can all predict, sure, and often with a great level of success, but often it’s those surprises that make this business so exciting and innovative. Will there even be another big social networking site? Possibly not. It’s likely that the next online fad will be something totally unexpected. And – along the way – that means that a number of lumbering giants will stop by, claim their place on the throne, believe themselves to be invincible, before being replaced by the next hype-machine. It happens with business in the real world, and it certainly happens in the virtual one too.

CJ DAVIES

Friendster, then. Founded in 2002 – before the aforementioned other big-boys of social networking – and launched in March 2003, it attracted three million users within a few months of opening, and now has more than 115 million registered users. It continually raises funding from various investors – gathering a nice $20 million in August 2008, for example – and receives over 19 billion page views per month. Yet the thing is: do you know anyone who uses Friendster? It’s telling that The Onion recently unveiled a parody news video in which ‘the ancient ruins of a Friendster civilisation are uncovered’ – complete with mysterious references to things called ‘The Shins’ and ‘Six Feet Under’. The implication is clear – culturally, Friendster is seen as a dead fad. Yet the site remains one of the 200 most-visited in the world. What’s going on?

Things become – slightly – more clear when examining the user base. 90% of Friendster’s traffic comes from Asia, with the site proving most popular in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and South Korea. While no longer a bookmarked favourite within the Young Western Metropolitan demographic – usually seen as a barometer of success for such sites – it’s kept a steady financing and subscriber base nonetheless, while other more objectively ‘famous’ social networking sites have floundered. What’s the key here? Is the global village notion of the internet a fallacy … in that certain sites are going to remain popular in certain territories and not others? Is Friendster a good example of business-model ethics over ‘faddy’ bandwagon-jumping? Share your thoughts below.

CJ DAVIES

MySpace – while not exactly caught up in a Depression-era struggle – is on the decline. Popularity has waned. It now longer seems as ultra-relevant as it used to: the streamlined efficiency of new online-brand-titan Twitter makes it look like a lumbering dinosaur in comparison. There’s also the ‘F Word’ – Facebook, a site which went from being the province of university kids to quite literally taking over the world. So – what did MySpace do to compete with these burgeoning rivals? What steps did it take to up its game? Erm … none.

Sure – there have been recent concessions towards development, most noticeably a number of (clearly Zuckerberg-influenced) redesigns throughout 2008. Nevertheless, it couldn’t help but feel too little too late, a case of closing the stable door after the horse was at the glue factory. Can MySpace reverse its fortunes and reclaim its crown? How could they go about doing so? Share your ideas below.

CJ DAVIES

Joost, it seemed, was going to be massive. Everyone would be using it. And then? Well … things just began to fizzle out. Built on P2PTV technology, Joost was an enticing prospect when it first began its strangulated journey through development hell.  In a world of BBC IPlayers and the like, however – easy, immediate, user-friendly to even the most computer-illiterate – Joost became a minority concern (to put it mildly). Having been purchased by Adconion Media Group in November 2009, Joost now provides video services for businesses.

Despite support from Sony, Viacom and other large investors, the whole project was indecisive and lost: the essence of wishy-washy ‘start-up’ thinking. It’s still hard to quantify, even now – what is Joost, exactly? Zennström himself seems happy to admit this, claiming that Joost was badly ‘misjudged’ and bereft of the ‘right partnerships or audience’. What are your thoughts? Just why did Joost never quite take off?

CJ DAVIES