We are going to make the largest distributed library in the world | Hacker News Reader

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

4 pointsninthfrank079 comments

I'll post a link to the website in the comments.

What is a distributed library?

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.

What's the point?

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.

Two ways you can help:

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).

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.

Any feedback is welcomed.

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).

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)

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.

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)

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.

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.

http://www.kopibibli.org/

https://github.com/kopibibli/kopibibli

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

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

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