Archive for November, 2005

Monday, November 14th, 2005

More on author pages / some dreaming

Here are some responses to the responses to the last post, with some dreaming at the end.

1. Fixes. I fixed the author numbering problem, the author link problem, the apostrophe problem, and some others. There can still be a difference between copy numbers because the author page doesn’t count duplicates.

2. New feature. I added an author rating feature, based on book ratings.

3. Secondary authors. Yes, it’s too bad that secondary authors are not in the current system. It’s a little wiggly, starting with the programming standpoint. There’s also some issues between “second authors” and “included authors.” I’m going to let this run for a while before thinking about it. More generally, I want LibraryThing to handle “contents” in a rich way—to allow it to see the stories within the story collections. Authors are part of that, but not the largest part.

4. Non-suggested authors. Yes, I’m going to add something for the Ratzinger/Benedict or Clement/Twain problem. I think I’m going to restrict it to paid users, in case someone decides to run through the system combining popes with humorists. I’d also like the UI to use an auto-complete, which will take a little work.

5. Author cloud. This was the necessary first step to a fixed author cloud. The author cloud was shut down for a reason—lots of complaints. Chief among these was that the cloud included “the same author twice.” Opening up author names in this way make it possible to fix that.

6. Book-combination. Clearly this is a trial-run for other user-driven features. There is a method to my madness!

In case you read this far, I will tip my hand a little—and dream a little. Some day soon I’ll post more on this topic, but here’s some initial thoughts.

In general, the more open the system the better it will satisfy users. At the same time openness can create real value. That irritated person who clicks a button to make their German and English Harry Potters show up under the same author is forging a piece of information that Amazon doesn’t know. (Actually, they may know THAT one, but you see my point.)

The potential is huge: LibraryThing could be for library catalogs what Wikipedia is for encyclopedias. That’s a little imprecise. By and large, LibraryThing users don’t enter their own data, but take it from Amazon and libraries. But the connections between the data—author aliases, book aliases, contents, subjects/tags, etc.—can all be user-driven. Even now, recommendations, related tags and so forth are user driven—they’re driven by user statistics.

I believe that over time LibraryThing users will generate significant cataloging value. Some of the value will be user-generated. Some of it will be statistical. Most of it will be probabilistic rather than binary. And in the end, LibraryThing will never be the best catalog in the world. But I think it can produce data and will make even THAT catalog better.

All that from the “competitive bastard child of bibliomaniacs and pro wrestlers“!

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Sunday, November 13th, 2005

Author pages—you control ’em

Sharp-eyed users will notice a new feature—author pages. Author pages, linked to from within your catalog and elsewhere, list an author’s books, who owns them and so forth. This is a toe-in-the-water announcement. Coming days will see more features, including “similar authors” and a Wiki-like ability to add author home pages. Suggestions are, as always, encouraged.

There’s something daring in how the feature is implemented: users control the catalog. Some of you have noticed problems with two editions of the same book not always being counted as the same. Well, the problem is even worse with authors. Not only does LibraryThing draw on five Amazons and 30+ libraries around the world, but as anyone familiar with Library of Congress searching will tell you, author names often vary within a single catalog. Is Joanne K. Rowling the author of Harry Potter und der Orden des Phönix the same as J. K. Rowling the author of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix? A computer can’t tell, but I’ll bet you can.

In fact, the computer guesses pretty well, presenting a list of likely aliases for in the “Also known as…” section. You can check these authors out by clicking on their names. If they’re really the same, and you’re feeling generous, go ahead and click “combine.” The authors will be smoothed together, with the more common name winning. I’ve gone through some of the better-known authors—the rest are up to you.

Be bold! The system is self-correcting. If you screw up and combine two authors who aren’t really the same—eg., Thomas Wolfe and Tom Wolfe—someone will notice. Clicking “separate” will break them apart again.

Finally, although combined on a global, statistical level, user data is NEVER changed. Call her Jenny Rowling for all I care. Nothing’s going to change that data.

Again, they’ll be some improvements, but the core functionality is there. I’m eager to see how it gets used.

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Friday, November 11th, 2005

Frappr Map

LibraryThing user Sluggo had the great idea of setting up a LibraryThing Frappr map. Frappr is a fun, light-weight tool for putting things on Google maps, in this case LibraryThing users. If people use it, it’ll give a clearer picture of where users are, and give people more reasons to connect with each other.

It’s totally optional—you put yourself there, not the LibraryThing system, nor does LibraryThing control the data. It’s all by zip code, not actual address.

Check it out at http://www.frappr.com/librarythingusers . I propose your “shout out” contain your profile URL, at least.

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Thursday, November 10th, 2005

ISBNs work on Amazon.co.uk, etc. / ratings graph

It took a while, but I finally solved the issue with using ISBNs on non-US Amazon. Sorry it took so long.

I’ve added a user rating section to a book’s “social data.” Here’s the DaVinci Code‘s:

More fun data coming up!

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Tuesday, November 8th, 2005

The Christian Science Monitor does the LibraryThing

Tomorrow’s edition of The Christian Science Monitor includes the article “Do Your Own LibraryThing” by Jim Regan, already available online. It’s a sunny, detailed look at LibraryThing, “poised to turn the cataloging of books into a form of communal recreation.”

With luck some the article will spawn others, but I’m particularly happy they got to it first. The Monitor‘s a great newspaper—international, in-depth and analytical. It’s been knocked about a bit recently, but it has made great strides on the web. The LibraryThing article shows CM‘s strengths: instead of a glib focus on library-size competition or the seeming dominance of J. K. Rowling (see below), Regan describes the site in detail, like someone who’s actually used it. The reader can make up their own mind.

So, hats off to Regan and welcome to Monitor readers—send me an email and tell me what you think of it!

J. K. Rowling and the popularity myth

I’m going to set it to show more of the top authors for context. People do have a lot of Harry Potter books but people have a lot of books generally—Rowling is only 1/3 of a percent of the total. In fact, LibraryThing exposes the popularity myth. For example, while Dan Brown seems so popular right now, his 379 books are beaten by Umberto Eco’s 476 and trounced by Jane Austen’s 736. C. S. Lewis flings him down and dances on him—1,706!

When’s the last time you read a newspaper article entitled “Dan Brown is selling well this year, but it’s not that big a deal in context”?

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