i found out recently a friend of mine is in the digital vision program @ stanford so i was having a look at the various projects and this one by nita goyal called Project Open Books: Multiplying Resources through Online Communities caught my eye.

it blends a few of my fav things like online communities, education and libraries. there’s only a brief summary on the page but it seems people will be able to list the books they own and lend them to people in their local community using schools & libraries as the drop off points. the project is running (or will run, i don’t think it’s operational yet) in india but i think it could work anywhere. there is most definitely a difference btwn the melbourne city (and burbs) and nyc libraries. i’m a big user of the libraries & there’s a lot of times when the book i want isnt available here.

this type of community would tie in extremely well with some of the book communities already on the web (like library thing and books well read) but calls out for some reputation management software. i hate to lend books to anyone b/c i’ve had such bad luck in getting them back. my really prize books don’t get lent at all. not everyone feels the same way i do but you’d need some sort of reward/punishment for those who don’t contribute to the system or return the books.

very cool idea to keep an eye on.