A couple months ago, I had the chance to write an op-ed piece for the San Jose Mercury News about how the iPod becomes the myPod (short version: it's the music, stupid), and how, while we think of personal music players as, well, personal, they're likely to get more social in the future. Wired News reports on a phenomenon moving the iPod in that direction: bars and clubs having the equivalent of open mike nights, or stereo systems in which people can plug in their iPods and share their music with other patrons:
iPods Top Jukeboxes, DJs
The jukebox at the bar Brian Toro manages isn't gathering dust just yet -- but it may only be a matter of time. The popular nightspot is among a growing number of places across the country where people can bring their iPods and other portable music players and, for as long as the bartender allows, share their personal favorites with the crowd.
"Everybody wants to be a DJ," says Toro, a 29-year-old Californian who recently moved to Chicago and now manages Bar Louie in the city's Gold Coast neighborhood. "People enjoy having a little control in their lives."...
Experts who track technology trends say they're not surprised people are sharing more music in public.
"It's the same thing as sharing a hot new 45 or tape or CD," says Susan Barnes, associate director of the Lab for Social Computing at Rochester Institute of Technology in upstate New York.
She also sees it as more proof that -- while some have accused a new wave of music listeners of shutting out the world with their headphones -- technology is actually encouraging people to socialize.
"All this stuff is set up for people to meet other people -- not isolate," Barnes says.
John von Seggern, a laptop DJ and producer in Los Angeles, also sees DJing as part of an overall movement toward decentralizing control of many forms of media -- whether it be through podcasting, blogging or musicians and authors offering their work direct for downloading on the internet.
This is also interesting as an early, DIY example of one of the fixtures of the pervasive computing vision: the availability of hardware that users can borrow for limited, negotiated periods of time. (See Roy Want's discussion of the personal server for an example.)
Technorati Tags: cooperation, ipod, music, pervasive computing
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