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Jonathan Lederman

I'm a former corporate lawyer who's decided to use my powers for good. I've made an ope... - 4 views

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    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"
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    I linked to the Reddit page because it has the beta key. The official website is http://www.librarymixer.com
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    In prowling around the site, I'm running up against questions such as "what constitutes 'social' in the current media environment" or "what is 'sharing' all about today?". These are not so much questions of moral import, but more of practice and the "boundaries" around doing things: listening, talking about, exchanging, debating, etc. What does an experiment like LibraryMixer push us to think about here? How's it different from other options (legal or not)? Also, this is an Open Source effort: what are the relationships between "open source" and "social" in regards to media boundaries?
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    (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
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    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.
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