Mike Sugarbaker makes comparisons between Last.fm and Pandora, finding pros and cons in each, and ends up asking why we can’t gene-splice the two together:
“We shouldnât have to choose between bottom-up and top-down, between cathedral and bazaar – thatâs the other thing, that Pandoraâs categories were made by experts and presumably applied by professionals, whereas last.fm basically is just the product of what people do anyway, via the site and its associated Audioscrobbler tool.
People say that the top-down, made-by-those-who-know-whatâs-good-for-you approach is now outmoded, but in this case it seems to have what folksonomy will never get us: the element of surprise.”
Well, the gene-splice has happened it seems: with PandoraFM (http://pandorafm.real-ity.com/)
I missed this when it made LifeHacker late last month, but this seems like an excellent idea (although there’s still no link through to Bleep. Hummph) – injecting the element of robotic, clinical input into the organic social network. Going to try it for a little while…
What other social networks could benefit by the addition of non-humans?
Petafloptimism 