As anyone who has an iPod, or any other large library of material, knows: sometimes valuable material can get buried. In the iPod example, chances are that unless a playlist is created, a song you like may get played only rarely. The methods of getting a favorite song to play more often include creative uses of metadata, some kind of search, playing a file directly, as well as using a playlist. In other words, short of somehow knowing what file (or kind/attribute of a file in a search) you’re looking for, there needs to be some kind of active step taken to make the item more prominent.
So what does it mean? There needs to be some person or technology which plays a role of helping us know what we may potentially be interested in. Not only does the model save us time, but it also helps create personal connections of interest. From iPods to social cohesion; who’d have guessed.