Last.fm would completely fail if it wasn’t for the collaboration of its users. The site thrives on attracting new users as well as keeping their current users satisfied. This is because without users this site would fail at its purpose of a way for people to find and reccommend new music to others.
Conversation:
There are two forms of conversation through last.fm: “in-site” email and Shout Boxes. Both of these forms are very common with social networking and community sites. Users can choose to email others with the built in mail systems similar to that of MySpace and Facebook. They could also write on their Shout Box very much like users of Facebook will write on one another’s walls.
A majority of the conversation between users is music related whether it be a comment on her/hisweek’s playlist or a recommendation of a band or album she/he might like. These simple forms of conversation helps the community strive by getting users to browse the site for new music to show their friends or enjoy for themselves.
Coordination:
Like I mention before, without of particpation of it’s users, this site would fail. If users didn’t interact with others on the site or not scobble their music plays from the media device, then the site would fullfill its purpose and the community would cease to exist. Without a user’s music play information, the site wouldn’t be able to recommend similar bands they may enjoy and they wouldn’t be able to interact with other users.
Awareness:
If users only used the site as a way to keep track of their music plays and not for finding new music, then they’re going to miss out on a lot of what the site has to offer. They wouldn’t see that the site offers not only a nice way to organize their plays but also online radios customized for each user or all of the free mp3 and albums uploaded by artists.
My point is that last.fm is a community and without the help of its users then the site would cease to exist. It’s a great utility for people looking for new music and a way for them to network with people around the world.
October 5, 2008 at 11:15 am
Howdy Nicholas,
I think you did a great job with understanding conversation. (FYI: I am not a Last FM user, so what I am about to say may or may not really apply).
Coordination is defined as “Multiple people interaction together to achieve something” right? So are people “linking” music together, purposefully? I think for something to be labeled as coordination, there has to be a goal.
So, is music list making an example of coordination or an emergent behavior?
Also, if a concept really doesn’t apply it’s cool to say, “This site doesn’t do concept X, but if it implement “Plan X”. That would be a way the site could implement concept X”.