This week a new social site was brought to my attention: hitREcord. Created by actor and producer Jordan Gordon-Levitt, it is an online collaborative production company. Instead of hiring professionals to create content like a traditional company, the producers of hitREcord allow anybody to upload, remix, and edit content on the website. The site is set up much like a regular Social Media site. Users create profiles, upload their own individual content, and can interact with the other users of the site.
The site works as such:
User Joe can set up a project; give it a name and short description about what the project is about. Joe then issues a challenge, either general or specific, for adding to the project. If Joe feels ambitious, he can issue more than one challenge in relation to his project. The challenges are searchable by every user on the site. Users who find the challenge intriguing can choose to accept it and upload their work into the project. Using comments and tags, the community as a whole helps to shape the project and how it is defined. Works that users consider good can be given a heart, much like Pinterest. Those with more hearts rise to the top of searches. The producers at hitRecord go through the popular projects on the website regularly to see if there is anything they want to formally produce. If a project is picked to be an official production, all of the contributors are paid by hitRecord.
One of the standout points about this site for me was the fact that once a user uploads their content anybody can download it and do whatever they want with it. There is no copyright on any of the material. If Joe uploads a short story about urban farming, I could download it and rewrite it to be about vegetarian vampires. Anything is fair game.
Does this help creativity? Or does it hinder original work?
Either way I feel like this type of social site is indicative of where our technological society is headed. If libraries can find a way to be present in these collaborative settings, it could open up the library to a new set of users.
So, my question for you is:
How can libraries could use this modal to foster collaborative works in their own communities?
For more information about hitRecord check out Joe’s introductory video:
I wonder if this site could be used in conjunction with Makerspaces at libraries. Perhaps it would give some people direction in terms of their projects, or would inspire creation amongst those who frequent Makerspaces. Just a thought…
Just to build off that last comment, something like this might be used by libraries to create a digital makerspaces, and create a new type of creative environment through Internet connections. Also, just a thought…