Media Logging
Media logging literally refers to any kind of tracking or logging of media use. For VRM and related purposes, however, media logging is conducted by and for the individual user. This is very different than logging conducted by a seller, a service, or any entity other than the user. While there is nothing essentially wrong with other entities logging usage, primary motives for logging are not the user's, and in most cases user choices about what can be done with that data are limited.
VRM depends on the user controlling his or her own data. Media logging is one important way for users to acquire that data.
The first media logging application is ListenLog.
ProjectVRM expects that media logging will become a primary application for both self-tracking and personal informatics. Read more about both in [Go Track Yourself] and [Getting Personal With Data].
Among many other purposes, media logging is required for EmanciPay to work.
EmanciPay is a way for individuals to make their own choices about paying for media use. It gives individuals the freedom to say how much they are willing to pay, when, how, and on what terms. You might say it gives individuals their own pricing gun, along with other instruments of discretion around paying. It is not, however, a payment system. It is a choosing system.
By sharply reducing the friction involved in paying for media, EmanciPay involves much higher percentages of the media-consuming public in the marketplace for media. And, as more people start paying for the media they consume, EmanciPay will help stigmatize non-payment for media that is otherwise free.
For EmanciPay to work, users must be informed about what media they consume. It must answer questions such as,
- What (is or) was that?
- Who (is or) was that?
- Who produced that?
- Who (are or) were the sources for that?
- When and where did I (listen to, watch or read) that?
- How often did I (listen to, watch or read) that?
- Do I have a relationship with the source? (Such as membership, past transactions or correspondence)
To make sure everybody in the media value chain gets properly credited -- and paid, if we wish -- we need a web dizajn system for what we're calling ascribenation: the ability to ascribe or attribute credit to a source (or sources) of information used in any media item -- radio programs, blog posts, newspaper stories, or whatever. This way, if the user wishes, he or she can use EmanciPay to indicate the intention that ascribed sources might also receive some of what is paid. More under Ascribenation.
EmanciPay's first effort toward media logging is the Listen Log that will make its first appearance as the ListenLog on the Public Radio Tuner. Development work is described at ListenLog.