Assignment #12 Tom from MySpace involved with Asian porn?

Throughout the semester dozens, if not hundreds, of different topics were discussed in class.  That leaves many possible options for assignment #12; searching and discussing one issue on Wikipedia.  With so many choices, it almost makes it more difficult to choose.  I wanted to do a topic that nearly everybody is familiar with; I was going to pick Facebook.  But that is a very common topic and probably many others will choose the same.  I was going to go with Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, similar topic, but less obvious.  As I went to Wikipedia, a brilliant idea hit me, I knew which topic was perfect!  It’s relevant, very interesting and one which only a few students might discuss…that’s our very own professor!  Yes, I chose Dr. (Tarleton) Gillespie for this assignment.

 However, my excitement was short lived, because even though Dr. Gillespie does have his own Wikipedia page, and the page does meet the requirements of “been at least 6 months old”, and it even has “more than 5 authors”, it sadly doesn’t meet the requirement of having “at least five external citations.” 

After the crushing news of not being able to dissect Dr. G.’s page, I wanted to go with the theme of “social networking.” That’s when another topic popped up; I knew actually what to do.  This person is relevant, interesting and known to most…in fact, most us of are “friends” with him.  That is Tom (Anderson) from MySpace, if you have a MySpace account, then he is on your “friends” list. 

His Wikipedia address is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Anderson_(MySpace).  The original date of this entry is January 28^th, the piece has between 1,500 – 2,000 contributors.  I chose him because we discussed social networking sites throughout the semester, and his site, MySpace, have been credited with starting the craze.  Yes, his site was not the first site, but it was the first to become extremely popular.

Tom’s Wikipedia page is surprising short for how “famous” he is.  Heck, Dr. Gillespie’s Wikipedia’s is longer!  At first glance, Tom’s page doesn’t seem to be bias because every statement or statistic is followed up with a link to the source.  But, looking closer, it could be considered bias because there are some facts that are not listed; mostly the decline of MySpace within the past couple years.  The only mention of the present day MySpace is, “[I]t is currently one of the most popular social networking websites in the United States (listing consistently among the top ten on Alexa Top 500 Global Sites, after its main competitor, Facebook).”  No mention that MySpace had to fire 30% of their employees in 2009 because of their decline.  Yes, there is a Wikipedia entry on MySpace which has all the statistics, the good and the bad, Tom’s page doesn’t have ANY such news.

For having so short of Wikipedia page, Tom has a couple surprisingly heated controversies.  These topics were discussed by several different contributors all with citations and sources.  The issues are 1). Tom Anderson’s age, 2). if he is the infamous computer hacker “Lord Flathead” and 3). his involvement in Asian porn…yes, Asian porn.

1). Tom’s real age, on his MySpace page he states he attended Berkeley in 1994.  Which would suggest he is 34 years old, however, “in a 1986 issue of Phrack has him 16 in 1986” (http://www.phrack.com/issues.html?issue=11&id=11).  There are been several different document released with conflicting birthdays

2). If he is the infamous hacker “Lord Flathead”, this is a very “loose accusation” says most of the Wikipedia community.  But there are still a couple who insist that Tom is the hacker.  “Lord Flathead’s” age, and location match exactly with Tom during the time.  The name of the hacker wasn’t officially released because the hacker was a minor at the time.

3). Asian porn!  This is undisputed; Tom works with the website TeamAsian.  The controversy is Tom’s involvement.  It does not state exactly what his position is with the website, but it states he is “affiliated with it.”  When Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace, he had a very big issue, and actually told Tom to step down from his position with TeamAsian.  It is unknown Tom Anderson’s current status with that website

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