Group items tagged

From the website:  "LibraryMixer is a free website where lovers of music, movies, TV shows, games, software, books, pictures can list what they have in their libraries. You share your library list with your friends and recommend stuff you like that they can get directly from you. You don't need to upload anything onto LibraryMixer! The best way to learn more about LibraryMixer (besides using it!) is to watch the introduction video or read the text version. https://www.librarymixer.com/info/faq"

(I haven't been able to use the program for more than half an hour so far ... a lot of this will probably end up moderately incorrect.) Rather than ripping off music from anonymous users on sketchy p2p networks, or grabbing thousands of fragments from hundreds of nodes to synthesize a final piece of content, LibraryMixer combined with the Mixologist allows for personal interaction and communication about an item. The program and website integrates an instant messenger with a check-out system. The check-out system allows individuals to browse the general library, and select things they have, they want, or that they can review. Based on this information, users communicate with others via the friends list and instant messenger. From here, individuals directly connect with one another to transfer, or 'lend', the desired items. Physical items can be posted on the website too, but they require different methods for loaning items. I don't see any way to determine whether an individual rightfully owns a file they loan to others. I'm also not sure about if the file is copied to the transferee's machine and remains on the original, or is removed from the original machine in the process. However, there must be a direct connection made between the content owner (in whatever sense of the word 'ownership' we mean) and the individual loanee. This direct connection also ensures more privacy during a file transfer than p2p networks and bittorrent. (Unless you don't know the person. This is also exactly how trojan viruses and backdoors would be installed through AIM.) I think a good example of 'open source' in relation to 'social' would be the sheer amount of activity on discussion boards like http://ubuntuforums.org/. The lessons learned in this type of place regarding collaborative problem solving are not only abundant, but also applicable to tasks like coordinating large-scale real-world events

I've used the website a bit further. It seems that the community infrastructure is there for a helpful, friendly, personal community. This is entirely unlike anonymous discussion boards where people love to put on the ring of Gyges and succumb to ... well, I don't have any friends on the website yet so I can't really tell. Again, seems like solid community infrastructure in comparison to a site like bt.etree.org or demonoid.

post from "The Engaging Brand" blog...

Raises an interesting point...the need for boundaries. But very limited in its explication.

There is no question that we should all evaluate our social interactions online, but it is interesting that we now have to reconsider how to censor ourselves and our "friends" in online environments as if those digital messages represented the same type of interaction as if we were face-to-face. We have given this type of communication the same status, but are they really? Or do we need to develop a different sort of etiquette?

In the offline world, we all have different personas for different situations. Say the differences between how we interact or represent ourselves at work, with friends, with lovers, with children, with strangers, etc. Are we simply transposing or correlating these personal differences to online social spaces as if they still equally apply? It seems natural that we would be concerned with privacy, surveillance, or safety, but if it just a matter of establishing certain social boundaries, should they really be defined the same in a digital environment as they are in the offline world? If so, why?

post on adoption site about 'policing' what gets watch, i.e. setting boundaries