Clearly one thing that social networking is about is exploring the limits on what you want to share and what other people might be interested in. There is, I'm sure, at least one sociology paper (and two reports to the D.A.) in this theme…
Different social networking services have been more or less successful in getting folks to enter information about what they're listening to, reading, etc., but if there is one lesson after 20 years in this industry it is that people love to share, but they hate filling out forms more than 2 or three times. Ask most people who, unlike me do not have OCD, to fill in all the books they've read or all the music they've bought, and they get bored right quick.
Amazon, however, is in a unique position to let you share without doing nearly that much work. All you need do is to agree to sacrifice a bit of privacy and hey! presto! instant lists and lists and lists.
Now, with Amazon's Your Media Library I can start off with a list that Amazon keeps for me.
I can easily take a more visual view, which just cries out for a Silverlight front end, don't you think?
(NB: I've chopped these images down to help them fit)
Hmmm…. the potential is pretty powerful. Even if I don't use their front end, there may well be a way to hook into their list as a web service or… a Sliverlight application.
It's way too late at night to figure this all out, but it is very intriguing, so I'm going to go dream about it and see what I can some up with.
Meanwhile, if you write anything interesting that creates a Silverlight front end to this service, be sure to let us know.
[NB: Sorry about the original images. Fixed now – Dope Slap!]
