we have gone at this project as a question of information architecture. for the interface design of JUKEBOX, we are working with plumbdesign, creators of thinkmap. the following description of JUKEBOX assumes some familiarity with thinkmap application for hyperlinked information. (for an example see www.thinkmap.com). users of the JUKEBOX interface will not have to know how to do anything but drag and drop and click.

the concept is to create a jukebox of ideas using soundstreams as the common territory. JUKEBOX functions as Net-sourced platform for the listening and sharing music. Beyond functioning as a playback format, JUKEBOX also looks at music choices, creating hyperlinks between image and audio, text and tracks that broadcasts a linkage of contextual information around the music content that has something to do with location, memory, desire, and other such sloppy signifiers. we see this project a kind of score or musical notation: the idea is to activate the consumption patterns of listening by contextualizing music and the associative data the user provides. we will demo JUKEBOX with the Brown community, imagining it as a sound sandbox in which the campus can mix up its codes. it's another way for a campus to express itself and activate interaction between disparate communities. 

the members of the user group are able to upload sound files (these can be individual tracks or whole mixes) to a page on the Brown campus system. the interface will be a thinkmap system (java intensive). in addition to the soundfile, the user is encouraged to create a list of links that will orbit the soundstream in the 3D interface. there will be some general categories to choose from and a feature for users to define their own category. for example, if someone puts up  "Staying Alive" by the bee gees, a new orbit they might include is "hair styles." the same user might also put up a link to soundtracks or favorite movies or a bee gee wannabe club site. a charting of listening patterns takes place for individuals as well as groups. dorm 11 loves big beat and now they're having an audio encounter with dorm 5 on the hip hop, etc. the cross circuiting of musical genre and associative feedback is limitless.

the downstream in all cases is open.  anybody should be able to listen via the Net with the appropriate browser software. the program does not provide downloads-only listening playback e.g. shoutcasts. three important issues in design and use of JUKEBOX are 1) sequence of play, 2)inter-user dialogue,  and 3) initial limitation of user community: the users upon uploading their soundfile have a choice to be alerted by email to the time their sounds will play along with a posting of the 3 hours of sequences surrounding that program. the user can assign a bulk mailing of that information, creating a self-selecting listening pool. the soundstream that is playing is automatically connected by sequence to the prior selected stream and the subsequent stream, represented as bonds of the orbiting molecules creating larger molecules of these 3hr sequence packets. the initial period of upstreaming for JUKEBOX via DAC will be limited to a local group - the Brown campus. this limitation on participants allows the patterns of local flavor to be reflected more clearly than on an open channel.