luv is all around

According to this report in the Guardian, there is only one team publishing academic research based on quantitative analysis of communications on MySpace. I find that quite surprising, as it is such an obvious model system of human interactions, networks, etc. I would have thought that dozens of research groups would have pounced on it years ago. In the pre-MySpace age I met somebody who analysed networks by looking at the recommendations on Amazon.com. So I would have expected that this kind of research would have moved to MySpace pretty quickly, when it came up.

Also surprised to read that most males on MySpace have more female than male friends (in stark contrast to the RL situation). And I always thought that was just me. It does make a lot of sense though, as the physical distance makes it safer ... :)