A suggested revision of Qualities

(thoughts are commented in the original post)

Expressivity

(why? desires and needs to be noticed, to make sure oneself matters and make a difference to the world)

Music as a way to express identity and values, to show who I am and why I am special, as a way to be noticed

Example1: Taste of music is filled with a connotation that is distributed to others.

Example2: People ask about each other´s music taste when they first meet because they think it tells a lot about one´s character

Example3: Upload own-created music on the Internet or Transfer them to strangers by Bluetooth, and see how other people react to the music(downloads, comments, fans email)

Communication

(why? desires and needs to be understood, feel a sense of belonging)

Music breaks the ice

Example: Music is used when you get together, in a social setting such as a party and the music enhances, and creates the situation.

Music helps to find likely-minded people that don’t exist in current social network
Example: Music can help you find new people, the similar preference of music is the link to an unknown person (for example, looking at people in file sharing-program, profiles on Myspace.com, talking about music to a stranger at a party )

Music as a way to express feelings for the current moment
Example1: People listen to different music in different occassions
Example2: while the music in the background while doing other activities, playlist/current songs are constantly changed

Music as a way to understand each other and a continuous communication channel

Example1: Music is a topic that is frequently discussed (for example MSN-sharing, Bluetooth-sharing at school, at a party).

Example2: Mixed tape/CD/Playlist exchange

Music provides a ground for social experiences
Example: People meet in situations where music is the connecting link, for example going to concerts.

Persona #2

Patrik, 23, University student

Patrik is a student studying culture production in Malmö University, and he is very enthusiastic about music. He is into rock and Phoenix is his favorite band. He also has his own band with some friends that they create and play music together in the leisure time. Many of his social contacts outside school are created through his music interest and he likes to go to concerts (and to hang out on pubs/clubs in general).

Music is a big part of his life. He listens to music probably everywhere and all the time. He has the latest mp3 SonyEricssion cellphone that he can store 200 songs and create different playlists. He constantly looks for new bands and new music on the Internet, and updates his songs quite frequently. He also talks to other bands on music creations and many of his friends are also very interested in music. His classmates in school see him as the opinion leader for music, and always asks for his recommendations, and he sometimes plays for them as well. He has a MySpace account that use to upload his own music, and also looks out for new and interesting bands through. He has a contact list of almost 100 people from all over the world on MySpace.

Problems:

- hopes to reach out more with his music and sees how people think about it

- always try to maintain the identity as the knowledge source for music

- sometimes feel he’s a little with stuck with everyone having a similar taste and would like to challenge himself and this fact.

Persona #3

Johan, 28, factory clerk

Johan has always been into music. His preferences has been changing from time to time and over the years he’s build up quite a big and neat collection of cd’s and lp’s. After starting to work, Johan’s life has changed pretty much and he is not into any specific “style” and dresses discretely. Nowadays he’s most into RnB and Techno, but he is open to most different styles - as long as it’s good. Although very interested in music, he’s never really had the time to do music of his own. He played the guitar in his teenage years, though.

Music is around Johan in many aspects of life – at work he listens both to radio and to songs on his work computer. In his private life, he listens to music both on stereo, computer and on a no-name mp3-player (mainly when he’s on the move, or at the gym).
Generally, Johan would pick different kinds of music for different times and occassions. At work, he listens to more slow music as opposed to working out, where the bpm tends to be really high!

Music is also a very important in his social life and it’s a big issue for Johan and his closest friends. They are usually both discussing, giving recommendations and sharing a lot of music both through mix-cd’s and by sending files. He enjoys having a party so that he could get to play his current favorites.

Johan has not settled for a specific taste and is open to check out new stuff. He looks for information on bands that he know and finds out about new things through both magazines and the internet. He mainly downloads his music nowadays, but occassionally he also buys a cd or a second hand lp.

Problems:
- He would like to get to check out more interesting music and especially go to concerts more often (but his friends doesn’t always want to). But at the same time, he get’s a little bit blasé about now music, as something that’s already been done.
- Has not really bridged the move from buying physical records to have everything digitally. Mp3 is neat, but not as much of an experience as a physical record.
- He wants to find out some new music he is interested, but there is so many music available and it seems quite time-consuming for him to find out what he likes.

Persona #1

Sara , 17, upper secondary school student

Sara is born in Malmö, and she lives here ever since. She is a high school student and interested in new media.

She has a MP3 cellphone which stores around 10 songs so that she can listen to music while taking the bus to school. She does not have the internet at home, so she get new music at school. She recieives music files from her friends through Msn or Bluetooth, or she downloads at school. She knows about new music from friends most of the time.

Sometimes her friends will share the headphone with her at school or she finds some music she likes while visiting friends; Other times she might find out from TV or radio. She also keeps a book of new music that she will look for later, but she always has no time to look for it and the information ends up outdated. She will store both the songs she likes and dislikes in her cellphone to show her friends. She not only talks about music itself with her friends, gossiping on singers, how the music video looks like, and etc also play a big part in the conversation.

She does not favor any particular music taste. Being up-to-date is the most important thing for her. Therefore, it is crucial to her to know the latest news about music and the related so that she can keep up with the peer conversation, or sometimes even be the first one to tell friends some interesting stuff.

Problem:

- She fancies new technology but at the same time she is a little bit frustrated about having it, since she’s lost one mp3-player and one mobile phone in the recent years.
Her parents are not that willing to give her money for the latest things all the time.

Research

• Jukola: Democratic Muisc Choice in a Public Space . o´Hara

(a cafe in which people could decide the music thats played via a special device)

• The Intelligent Street: responsive sound environments for social
interaction

(a sound installation)
• Accounting for Taste: Using Profile Similarity to Improve
Recommender Systems

WEB.DE Suche

(not especially about music, but about how people in general like to find others who are similar to themselves)

Social Matching: A Framework and
Research Agenda
LOREN TERVEEN
University of Minnesota
and
DAVID W. McDONALD
University of Washington

(again: more general)

((all on ACM))

A (relatively broad) Problem Framing

How can we enable or enhance the way people socialize by using music?

Qualities

Expression

Music is used to express an identity and values
Example: Taste of music is filled with a connotation that is distributed to others.Example: People ask about each other´s music taste when they first meet because they think it tells a lot about one´s character

Music is a way to build a group identity -this one i don’t really understand
Example: Music as a connecting factor and common ground.

Music is used to express emotions – is it more a personal experience rather than social aspect that you are trying to express urself to other? Example: When playing, or choosing music

Experiencing

-the more i look at this category, the more i feel that the following seems to be an extension of communication rather than an “Experiencing” category of its own

Listening to Music together is a collective experience
Example: Music is used when you get together, in a social setting such as a party and the music enhances, and creates the situation.

Music provides a ground for social experiences
Example: People meet in situations where music is the connecting link, for example going to concerts.

Communication
Music is a topic of communication
Example: Music is a topic that is frequently discussed (for example MSN-sharing, Bluetooth-sharing at school, at a party).

Music is a way to influence other people
- this one i don’t really understand, i think “influence” to me, it’s more like you change the way people think and do things, however music can make people dance, can create a feeling, seems to be a natural response how people will react to the music normally, rather than an influence or an impact
Example: Music can make people dance.
Example: Music can create a feeling.

Music creates communication links
Example: Music can help you find new people, the similar preference of music is the link to an unknown person (for example, looking at people in file sharing-program, profiles on Myspace.com, talking about music to a stranger at a party )

Articles and research for the future

The Use of Conventional and New Music Media: Implications for Future Technologies (Brown, Geelhoed, Sellen, 2001)

This article is a extensive field study on practices in music use and new media. The article identifies ways to find out about music (which is generally through friends). And also, attitudes on copying/buying, behaviours in compiling and organizing music. The articles implies that different kinds of music media are appreciated in different phases of the “music listening lifecycle”. “Whereas intangible, digital media formats bring many exciting possibilities for enhancement of sharing and creativity, tangible media offer their own affordances in terms of browsing and collecting”.

Push!Music: Intelligent Music Sharing on Mobile Devices (Jacobsson, Rost, Håkansson, Holmquist)

A music sharing application for mobile devices. The aim is to make media autonomosly find people instead of the other way around – throguh an agency in the media file itself. The application also allows making recommendations through ”pushing” of music to other users. The application allows recommending music in a local setting, sharing is collaborative/unaware or pushed/aware.

MobiTip: Using Bluetooth as a Mediator of Social Context (Rudström, Svensson, Cöster, Höök)

A social mobile service where comments or tips given by one person are made available to another when user devices connect on the fly, when users approach connection hotspots, or on demand. Bluetooth connectivity is used to form a social space of nearby devices that is used as key input for the collaborative filtering of tips.  Social space offers an additional source of input for determining the similarity between users.

Some persona ideas

Persona I:

Sara , 17

music enthusiasm level: low to medium/normal, interested in new/latest thing, like music in general, greatly influenced by peers, music as a topic to socialize and keep up with friends. don’t have a specific music taste.

Get new music from friends, from tv, radio, more, more into pop
expressivity: identity and being cool is important, want to keep up

It’s important to keep up and know things, and sometimes be ahead of topic. (Female)

Quick adoption to new technology

Persona II:

Patrik, 22

music enthusiasm level: high, have own band or produce music, have a preference for a particular type of music,

expressivity: identity and being cool is in particular important, want to be cool, topic generator, the influencer, the source

actually care about how people view them

adoption to technology that related to music or new things that can spread their publicity

like to talk about the production/creation of music, more keen to seek out associations, band networking

active in know how music is produced , to influence other ppl , opinion leader

Persona III:

around 25-30, music enthusiasm level: medium to high, but doesn’t have own band or produce music by him/herself, have large collection of music, and more information absorbing type of person, look for information more actively both paper media and internet media, but probably different kind of information that persona II is looking for.

Active in having the music to fit their own emotions , and also express emotions with other thru music

expressivity:

identity is not as important, however like to connect with friends

communication: like to share music and make recommendations

carry the old habits of mixed tapes , sharing playlists or mixed CD perhaps

experience: like

problems: