NosDa: Thank you for the last interview, it was noted that some of your answers raised new question that I would like to ask here.

jonathanbishop: Ok. I will gladly answer them.


NosDa: Do you feel that because you did not patent the Circle of Friends that your contribution has been forgotten?

jonathanbishop: Well I documented it a couple of times, as part of Technical Reports at Broadway Studios and as part of my HND, BSc(Hons) and MSc dissertations, so it has been a huge part of my work, though it does disappoint me when people don't credit me with being the first to invent it. Some people have suggested I should have set up a charitable trust that could have licensed it, though as I was working for Broadway Studios and studying at the University of Glamorgan when I invented it, they may have had more of a say if I had tried to patent it. I don't personally believe in patents, particularly now I have studied European Union Law as I think they are anti-competitive and inhibit product development.


NosDa: How do you react to claims that the Circle of Friends system makes it easier for stalkers or paedophiles to find out more about their victims?

jonathanbishop: If the six degrees of seperation principle is correct, then each of us is only six degress away from a paedophile, so it there is a chance that a paedophile could be in the Circle of Friends of someone your friend's friend's friend's friend's friend knows. I don't feel the Circle of Friends makes it easier for people to find out more about others, it is the online communities the Circle of Friends is attached to that displays the information. People should always be cautious about what information they put online - I'm sure when someone has received a cheque from someone it is not that difficult now they know their bank details to use a search engine to find the person's place and date of birth and mother's maiden name.


NosDa: Many people now days are willing to corrupt their circle of friends (by doing things like adding famous people) to improve their image, do you accept that your Circle of Friends has actually degraded the accuracy of peoples friends list?

jonathanbishop: What the Circle of Friends has done possibly is reduce the separation between people. It is now possible for someone to be less than six degrees away from someone famous by allowing them to add that famous person to their Circle of Friends. I think the Circle of Friends has challenged the very definition of Friendship and the nature of how people develop friendships. Online communities have almost always been based on people sharing interests and not necessarily based on their geographic location. The Circle of Friends builds on this by allowing people to be friends with people who have similar interests to them even though they are in another part of the world.


NosDa: How do you feel universities could improve to make it easier for people who want to develop their own ideas, and not just go with the flow?

jonathanbishop: I think universities need to design their courses in such a way to promote innovation and creativity. I think the best way to do this is to not force students to accept one particular belief or method, but to explore and construct their own version of the truth. The HND I did was based on developing for desktop systems and not the Web as I wanted, but thankfully some of the lecturers allowed me to develop Web applications. Universities should assess students on their willingness to try new things, new meaning things the student hasn't done before. Like what happened with me when I invented the Circle of Friends, if students explore something new to them, they may develop something when hasn't been done before anywhere in the world.


NosDa: The world has changed a lot since you created the Circle of Friends how much of that change do you think is down to your Circle of Friends?

jonathanbishop: With the widespread adoption of the Circle of Friends by social networking services it will have had a big impact on people's lives and how they make friends. The buddy list system that led to me developing the Circle of Friends often only had people a person knew in it, although other people could often find someone through a directory like with ICQ. The Circle of Friends had changed the way people make friends online and perhaps changed the significance of the term friendship. One of the good things about the Internet is that it has allowed a diverse range of opinions that the media would normally not publish to be heard by large numbers of people. The downside to this is that any bigot can make racist, sexist, disablist or other defamatory comments and have a worldwide audience to hear them, and often have no deterrent from doing so. In a democratic society we should have freedom of expression so long as it doesn't infringe on the ability of others to enjoy their lives in peace. I would hope that one day the bigoted comments made in online communities, like those about Big Brother star Brian Belo, would be treated as crimes just as if they were said in the real world. Anti-social behaviour is a problem affecting both online and offline communities, and perhaps the Circle of Friends will take a role in separating out the anti-social people from those who respect others and will also allow celebrities who are in people's Circle of Friends to act as role models.