

We are going to make the largest distributed library in the world - ninthfrank07

I'll post a link to the website in the comments.<p>What is a distributed library?<p>It's basically being able to see what other people have in their personal library via an online database. So for example, I could go on your profile and see all the songs you have in your music library.<p>What's the point?<p>The point would be to follow your friends and other people you care about and browse their profiles to see what they have in their media library. And if you want something they have, you can just contact them. They can send you the file via Dropbox or any way they want. They can even give it to you on a USB flash drive.<p>Two ways you can help:<p>1. If you're a Ruby on Rails programmer, you can help with the source code, which is available on Github (see the link in the comments).<p>2. Look at the albums you have in your music library and suggest them by creating an "issue" on Kopibibli. I will add them to the database. You will then be able to mark them as owned.<p>Any feedback is welcomed.
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velvet
Can you give us a preferred format for information? CSV? Or if you can outline
the database structure, I don't mind contributing if you can tell me the
preferred data format (to make it easier for you to import).

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velvet
I love this idea (it's resonating with me because I've been investigating
whether library management software packages provide APIs).

I'm concerned though that if you need people to email you so that _you_ can
add info to the database, you're going to be in for an awful lot of work if
this thing takes off, maybe beyond your ability to provide.

The other thing I was wondering is if kopibibli will provide any kind of API
itself, so other applications can query your database? There's a world of
potential for third parties there if so.

(reposted as reply to my earlier post)

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ninthfrank07
People don't need to email me. How it works is that once you create an account
on Kopibibli, you can create "issues". So if you have an album that is not on
Kopibibli, you just have to create an issue with the name of the album. On the
front page of Kopibibli, people can upvote issues. So I'm always focusing on
the issues with the most upvotes. And I delete an issue once it is resolved.

I agree that if it takes off, I would need to find a better way to add content
to the database. I was thinking of maybe letting people add content, but it
wouldn't show up on the site until I approve it.

As for providing an API, I would definitely like to do that.

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velvet
I'd probably separate out "bug" issues from adding data.

Even if it doesn't 'take off' right away, you'd do yourself a huge favour by
allowing people to add their own entries. If you need to add user submitted
data to a moderation queue that you have to check yourself, that's still
better than you having to enter things in. By allowing people (who maybe can't
help with the programming) to add to the database itself, you are then freed
up to do things like, say, work on an API ;o)

(edited for better clarity)

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ninthfrank07
I've just updated the app. Now users who are signed in can add new artists,
new albums and new songs, even if they are not admins.

You're right, I guess I should remove the issues section. I just need to find
what I would put on the homepage instead. Maybe a feed of the latest songs in
the database?

Edit: I've removed the issues section. As you can see on
<http://www.kopibibli.org/>, the homepage now displays the latest songs that
were added to the database.

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ninthfrank07
Update: I've removed the issue section. Now every user who is signed in can
add new artists, new albums and new songs to Kopibibli. But only admins can
edit and destroy existing artists, albums and songs.

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ninthfrank07
<http://www.kopibibli.org/>

<https://github.com/kopibibli/kopibibli>

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noonespecial
But, but, I really don't want my friends to know about my secret stash of
Milli Vanilli...

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ninthfrank07
Well if you don't want to tell people that you have that, you just have to not
mark it as owned.

