One of the most powerful aspects of smart mob technologies-- things like peer-to-peer, social software, etc.-- is that they can turn what were private goods into public resources. The latest example of this is the Distributed Library Project. According to its Web site,
The Distributed Library Project is an experiment in sharing information and building community in the San Francisco Bay Area.Unfortunately, the traditional library system doesn't do much to foster community. Patrons come and go, but there is very little opportunity to establish relationships with people or groups of people. In fact, if you try to talk with someone holding a book you like - you'll probably get shushed. The Distributed Library Project works in exactly the opposite way, where the very function of the library depends on interaction.
In a sense, this is the Napster model, but with atoms rather than bits. It pools resources; it encourages interaction; it is subject to Reed's Law scaling effects (e.g., the value of the network = 2N, where N = number of users). An important additional factor is that users can review each other, as they do on eBay, creating public reputations that can serve as a foundation for trust-building within the network.
This basic model is one that could be extended to any number of different types of goods, where you have 1) private ownership of goods, 2) portability or the possibility of open access, 3) non-exclusive use (i.e., I'm not using the object all the time, or don't need to have access to it all the time-- something that John Thackara spun out in an interesting direction in his "Post-Spectacular City" piece), and 4) the means to review the performance/reliability of participants.
Where else could it reasonably be extended? I suspect it will work best with things that people are accustomed to loaning to friends, and are relatively cheap. Books are a great start, and movies and music also obvious early entrants. Then there are some kinds of objects that are traded in informal networks and markets, but which aren't loaned out for longer periods. There's an active informal trade in baby clothes among parents with children of similiar ages, but that tends to operate on a "permanent loan" model: I don't borrow a few sleepers from a friend, and return them the next week, but use them for months.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, cars would be relatively hard to loan out in this way. But you might be able to create a system that marries smart mob technology with ride-sharing networks, allowing users to maintain control of their vehicles.
It'll be interesting to see how these distributed sharing systems evolve, and what kinds of things get shared.
[via Smart Mobs]
check out http://www.bookcrossing.com
they've been very successful at this type of person to person exchange, with a "random" option if you so choose, where you release the book in a public place and wait to be emailed by the site when it is found and re-registered.
Posted by: blah | February 06, 2004 at 03:27 PM