Comments on: The Internet of ghosts

By: chatroulette

chatroulette — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 23:13:13 +0000

I love this article, I’ve the feeling internet is devastating social relationship … People dont take the time to speak with each others and chatroulette is the perfect example of it.
Thats why napster is so interesting !

By: waylan

waylan — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 04:07:54 +0000

good title and sentiment Matt. very nice.

though, you can still have the Napster digging experience…

By: jim

jim — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 01:47:40 +0000

DC++ allows you to browse the file collection of other users in a Napster like way.

By: Matt Thompson

Matt Thompson — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:10:52 +0000

So much of the internet is about what we have to say. I think there’s something special about the Google search auto-complete and the Napster music collections (since the download folder was the same as the shared folder) because they let us peek into something completely different than what we have to say.

Absolutely. That definitely gets at the core of what I love about this phenomenon — the fact that our most valuable contributions to the Internet are frequently our most self-interested. Social bookmarking works best, for example, when the bookmarkers are saving links they find valuable enough to want to return to. Amazon’s recommendation engine gets better because it can collect the private, self-interested choices of searchers.

By: Patty

Patty — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 05:02:05 +0000

This brings back memories. For me it started with the music but then I discovered all the graphics apps and fonts and so forth. It was thrilling, like a discovering a secret underground world brimming with treasure. Every once in awhile I will discover an obscure film or an old British television series and that brings back a glimmer of the excitement of Napster days gone by but for the most part downloading for me with my super fast FIOS connection has become more of a utility like the microwave oven. Verizon keeps trying to sell me their TV service. They do not understand when I tell them I don’t have a TV, that I don’t need one. I can get a show in 5 minutes. It would sometimes take days to get one song via Napster and that made the song that much more precious.

By: Howard Weaver

Howard Weaver — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 01:17:30 +0000

Your emotionally uncertain last paragraph reminded me of this:

“It’s what Fredric Jameson called the ‘postmodern sublime,’ which he characterized as the simultaneous apprehension of dread and ecstasy. That’s very much to the point in terms of the times we live in.”
—William Gibson, describing contemporary life, Salon interview 2007

I find this very descriptive of how I feel in an increasing number of circumstances.

By: Basti Hirsch ッ

Basti Hirsch ッ — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:36:16 +0000

I don’t quite have a grasp on this pattern yet, but I feel we are increasingly moving to a world where we are able to experience one (hypothetical) degree of separation to everyone else on the planet.

Today homeless people may be best reached by e-mail, sheds in many slums come with a cell number instead of a street address. Now XIHA Life allows social networking across language barriers. Mayhaps next year I can @reply to a billion people from my mobile phone?

But not a billion, one person at a time. Or a ghost. If they don’t reply, how much will I really know about them? What ever happened to Toots DeVille? http://delicious.com/cervus/1degree

By: Frank Chimero

Frank Chimero — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:52:32 +0000

This is wonderful, Matt, if for no other reason for reminding me how much I used to enjoy browsing around a user’s file collection on Napster. It felt like the 21st century equivalent of snooping around someone’s medicine cabinet or bookshelf. Some how, seeing people’s music in a shared iTunes library feels less intimate because it’s overly organized. Or, because I have to know them to begin with. There was more “discovery” with the voyeurism of the Napster interaction, and because you wouldn’t be judged if you had Britney Spears next to Van Halen next to a Radiohead bootleg.

In 2010, the ubiquity of the Publish button forces us to compose ourselves. So much of the internet is about what we have to say. I think there’s something special about the Google search auto-complete and the Napster music collections (since the download folder was the same as the shared folder) because they let us peek into something completely different than what we have to say. It shows us what we want and desire. The search is on.