-----Original Message-----
Carolyn MCDONALD said in part:
What if this new generation ( who get low self esteem if they don't get
regular messages on their mobiles) come from a completely different
premise, and that is that the most important element of a book is what
social interaction it can bring them? So their assessment of it is how
well it will enable them to contribute to the group discussion, and
"buy" them credibility with their peers in the class? So their review of
it is critical, and of significant interest to others?
Which is why I think LibraryThing is exciting, and pushing the
boundaries in ways that I suspect we need to go - into the domain where
the social need is paramount, and the control is in the hands of the
users. What if our "catalogue" is nothing more than a venue to enable
people to meet over a book (or other piece of information)? Or rather,
what if our catalogue is nothing more than a data source which feeds the
user's catalogue, and their own personal catalogue is the only thing
that matters to them? And all they care about is if our catalogue is
built on standards that allows their personal catalogue to pull out of
it what they want?
**** Actually, you may not be far off in your idea of an economy of
ideas based on what you bring to the table in a group project -- the
social interaction and creditability that oils society. It reminds me
very much of the economy of respect in Cory Doctorow's SF novel _Down
and Out in The Magic Kingdom_, where the economy runs on "whuffies," or
the reputation you accumulate from your work and interactions. Think of
your rating on eBay, Etsy, Zunafish, as an Amazon reviewer, and so on,
all rolled into one and accessible to anyone who plans to interact with
you. (You can download the book for free at
http://www.craphound.com/index.php?cat=5.) Similarly the classic SF
story "And Then There Were None" postulates an "obligation" economy,
where you build up credit based on the work you do (available
http://www.abelard.org/e-f-russell.htm).
Janet Brennan Croft
Head of Access Services
University of Oklahoma Libraries
Bizzell 104NW
Norman OK 73019
405-325-1918
Fax 405-325-7618
jbcroft_at_ou.edu
http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/C/Janet.B.Croft-1/
http://libraries.ou.edu/
Editor of Mythlore http://www.mythsoc.org/mythlore.html
Committee Chair, Mythcon37, http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon37.html and
http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/C/Janet.B.Croft-1/ProgressReport1.htm
Received on Mon Jun 26 2006 - 11:44:44 EDT