I was thinking about Friendster and somehow I arrived at:
Amazon should have a matching service. With all the information that they store about your personal interests, expressed through purchases, item rankings and location, that metadata could be applied to a personals system. Whether you want to meet someone with similar or dissimilar interests, so much of our culture is about personality expressed through consumption. Just take a walk on 3rd St. or Melrose. Of course, not everyone is so simple... but I am sure that there are those that would be delighted to be matched with someone who owned the stuff on their wishlist. It's like finding the perfect materialistic complement.
Posted by kurt at June 2, 2003 4:44 PMSpeaking of making connections through books, here's another odd effort with a location-based twist:
"When was the last time you heard of a book club that had over 60,000 readers and 30,000 books in its reading list? Welcome to BookCrossing. http://www.bookcrossing.com/home This virtual book club unites readers in a game that’s half library, half Easter Egg hunt. Upon finishing a favorite tome, members tag and number the book, then "release" it into the wild, noting the "Crossing Zone" — the café or curb where they left it — on the web site. If a casual passerby stumbles upon the book and makes it her own, she can return to the site to log its retrieval. Motivated readers can seek out nearby Crossing Zones and swoop in, page-turning talons at the ready. San Francisco alone lists hundreds of recently freed books at parks, café, and even the MUNI #5 bus, so focus those eagle eyes next time you’re out and about. If there’s a book you really love, set it free.! "
Posted by: sfisher at June 2, 2003 10:11 PM
What a powerful concept. I love it.
But is this not the p2p network of the literary world? Books are liberated from libraries and stores, likely to the dismay of the publisher.
Sharing networks should be the paradigm of the 21st century. People take control of the media, information and objects that previously controled them.
This is why mobility is important. No anchors to restrict mental, physical and spiritual movement.
We are lucky to have this opportunity to watch this all unfold and maybe to participate in the construction of it.
Posted by: vegan man at June 3, 2003 2:53 PM
"Sharing networks" - good paradigm. In addition to sharing media, information and objects, I'd expand and personalize it more to include sharing viewpoints and personal stories. Blogs are obviously part of this phenomenon and the idea of personal "lifearchives" and subjective cinema seems to be an exploding meme at the moment. Check out this microsoft research: http://research.microsoft.com/barc/MediaPresence/MyLifeBits.aspx
Posted by: sfisher at June 5, 2003 11:34 AM
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