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Money Programme

Get the facts behind the big business and finance stories from around the world - and down your street.

Am I alone among my friends and colleagues in not having a Facebook profile? Surely not, but lately it certainly feels that way. Even my partner has one. And, as the programme pointed out, sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Friendster are not just for the coveted 18-35 age bracket any longer: one of my colleagues, who has reliably informed me that she's closer to retirement than I am, asked me just yesterday why I didn’t “do Facebook.” I’m beginning to feel positively old-fashioned (though I prefer to think slightly retro).

The programme raised some interesting issues about the potential benefits and drawbacks of social networking sites like Facebook. There's no doubt that information and communication technologies have changed the way that people connect with their friends and loved ones. Many of my friends and family live in North America, and it makes a huge difference to be able to keep in touch with them almost instantly with the click of a mouse. But these technologies are also beginning to change how we conceive of our relationships. Someone you've met once only briefly at a party probably wouldn't traditionally be called a "friend." So it seems that as these sites make it easier to keep in touch with each other, they also have begun to expand our social spheres. I have a hard time keeping up with my relatively small group of friends. How can anyone really keep up relationships with a hundred, or two hundred, or sixteen hundred?

"companies like Facebook will want more and more information about us"

It's brilliant that these sites are often free for users to register on and to use. But just because we don't pay a subscription fee doesn't mean there's no cost to those of us who use them. After all, it costs the company a lot of money to buy the massive computer servers and Internet bandwidth that these sites use, and to pay the people who write the software code and who feed the octopus and starfish in the virtual aquarium. As Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg explained, quite simply, these sites are based on a business model of selling targeted advertisements. Targeted advertisements, unlike traditional broadcast adverts, rely on information about their targets. And we--the users--are the targets. It's inevitable that companies like Facebook will want to gather more and more information about us as users, because it is that rich mine of data about us that advertisers are willing to pay for.

Information that people make available to the public on sites like Facebook can be used in strange and unintended ways. The recent tragic death of British exchange student Meredith Kercher provides one chilling example. When Meredith’s roommate Amanda Knox became a suspect in the case, her Facebook profile provided a wealth of information for the media. Her photos on MySpace and Facebook, and her online details (including her nickname of “Foxy Knoxy”) were published by news organisations around the world. Suddenly her youthful, party-girl persona, no doubt only intended to be shared with her friends, became her primary public image. Meanwhile, people from all over the world posted messages of grief and sadness on Meredith’s public Facebook page, which became a sort of online memorial.

A few people I know have already experienced what one of my friends calls “faceache”—they’ve just given up on Facebook because it takes too much time and energy. But I suspect that, whatever happens to Facebook itself, online social networking sites will continue to grow. These sites make it easy and convenient to keep in touch with our social circles in a fast-paced and busy world. So it seems inevitable that, one day soon, I’ll be on Facebook too. If you happen to see me there, give me a poke!

Find out more

• Take it further - more ways to learn about these issues
• Free magazine - find out more about Open University radio and TV Programmes
• Join the discussion - what do you think about Facebook?
• Network Effects - The value of a product depends not just on the product itself - but how popular it is with other people
• How private is private? - Discover the ideas behind CCTV and data collection. Why are these techniques used?
• MySpace, Facebook and Other Social Networking Sites: Hot Today, Gone Tomorrow?
• I'm in privacy trouble
• Twenty-eight people ask Hugh MacLeod to be their friend each day
• OpenLearn: People, Computers and Learning

About the author

Gabriel Reedy is a lecturer in learning and teaching innovation in the OU Business School. His research focuses on the social and cultural impacts of teaching and learning technologies, and he studies how technology can support professional learning.

Blogging about

Money Programme

Get the facts behind the big business and finance stories from around the world - and down your street.

Like Pete Waterman, I remember Airfix with a great deal of affection. My first, perhaps inevitably, was the Spitfire. 1:72-scale, duck egg blue, polystyrene parts that really did ‘almost fall together’, but in my case with a ‘crazed’ cockpit-canopy where I’d been a over-exuberant with the adhesive. Nevertheless, I was hooked; I worked my way through the range of military aircraft, with Dad on hand to help with the difficult (i.e. movable) bits. Parents are obviously a formative influence, and in the 1950s many would have at some time been involved making/flying/maintaining such aircraft and many more would have been working in engineering-based industries. Clearly, a toy that you could assemble yourself into something iconic chimed with the zeitgeist…

Researching this piece, I was amazed to discover that the original product concept was not for a kit of parts but for a completed model – in the very first instance, of a Ferguson tractor. But although the injection-moulded parts were comparatively cheap, assembly added significantly to the costs, and so someone, somewhere, came up with what is now arguably the defining characteristic of an Airfix product – self-assembly from a kit of parts. Throughout the ’60s and ’70s the range grew, but the essential product remained unchanged. In the 1980s the company’s fortunes went into serious decline; if they are to be successfully revived then the market must be carefully researched. What is the product? Who are the customers?

So, is it a kit, a model or a toy? Does the enjoyment arise from making it, admiring the finished product, playing with it, or some combination of all three? Traditionally the attraction was largely based upon attention to detail (at the time, vastly superior to the competition), arguing towards the first two. The finished product was never noticeably robust, so the ‘playing’ bit inevitably involved suspending it from the ceiling with bits of cotton and required lots of imagination. And who’s going to buy it? There is certainly plenty of nostalgic goodwill out there, but by its nature that can’t last forever. A new generation of enthusiasts must be cultivated by appealing to something they find relevant. The Doctor Who link may be a risk – the programme is noticeably less hardware-oriented than say Star Wars, hence the focus in the programme on figures rather than machines, so does that change the nature of the beast? Is this the way to bring a new generation on board?

Airfix originally prospered at a time when World War II was recent memory and Britain still considered itself an engineering power. Times are now very different and engineering design and manufacture represent a steadily decreasing contribution to the domestic economy. Not only are today’s products manufactured in places like China, they are increasingly designed there too. Is the whole notion of an Airfix kit just too engineering-led for Britain in the 21^st century?

Looking back, Airfix was certainly a factor in my subsequent career direction. How much do our toys influence our attitudes, and what then might be the economic consequences of the current vogue for computer games? Perhaps more importantly, will it help us to create wealth when everything we buy is Made in China?

Find out more

• Join the discussion - do you think Airfix kits will sell in modern Britain?
• Airfix flies again - watch extended interviews from the programme
• Marketing in a complex world
• Creativity, innovation and change 
• Managing innovation - how do companies get the creative juices flowing? What drives innovation and what factors stop it in its tracks?
• The youth market - companies like Reebok spend a lot of time and effort targeting young people. Learn about the tactics they use. 
• English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit, 1850-1980 by Martin Wiener
• Engineering the difference - James Dyson gives the Richard Dimbleby Lecture
• Outsourcing innovation
• Marketing by David Mercer, published by Blackwell

About the author

David Mayle spent many happy years in high-tech new product development before becoming a management academic at the OU Business School. He currently teaches and researches in the areas of innovation and operations management.