Musicology: Bringing Personal Music into Shared Spaces

The Musicology project examines the user, ecosystem, and technology aspects necessary to enable playback of personal music in public spaces. User surveys, field interviews, and a technology prototype inform a discussion relating to privacy and identity, content control, and power consumption (among others). Understanding how mobile devices can be used to present personal content, initially with audio but eventually through photographs and other media, has the potential to open up new avenues for personal expression, bringing the motivations behind online content sharing websites into a publicly social arena.