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Applied ResearchLiza PottsOne viewer expressed concern in the show’sdiscussion boards on Hulu by stating,One of the best shows out there!!!! Whencan we get more??? I was almost doneseason three!!!! and then they took it off!wonderful acting and actors and of coursevampires = one heck of a show! Pleaseput on more seasons including three!!!!I’m desperate to see more! (Pierson, 2009)The time cost of using Netflix can also beburdensome to many users. Not all of the Netflixlibrary is digital, meaning that consumers still need torent physical media from the company rather than viewstreaming content over the Internet. Many televisionshows distribute their content on DVDs with littleconcern for user experience, often burning only twoepisodes per DVD. The task of synchronizing, viewing,and mailing can become tedious at best and extremelyfrustrating at worst. Juggling syndicated television, Hulu,Netflix, and BitTorrent: Are these the experiences wewant for our users? As Gillespie (2006, p. 661) states,“What is really at issue here is not just expertise andinnovation, but a broader question of user agency:a software design community that encourages it, aregulatory constraint that forbids it.”While it is possible for these users to seek outother legal content providers such as Netflix, someconsumers instead look to illegal Web sites andP2P networks from which they can download andview content. The argument can be made that thesesystems exist partially because of the lack of a stronguser experience where they can access legal content.Hulu cannot keep these licenses indefinitely, and thedifficulties of Netflix’s distribution may encourageconsumers to seek other means to view content. AsLessig (2008, p. 145) stated, “There exists not justthe commercial economy, which meters access on thesimple metric of price, but also a sharing economywhere access to culture is regulated not by price, but bya complex set of social relations.”Mapping could have helped with technicalcommunication activities within this context. Clearly, thethought of an experience is being misplaced in favor ofindividual delivery mechanisms. Users are looking for asingle, seamless event in which they can watch contentand participate within it. Maps can bring to light theseuser needs, illustrating the many ways in which today’smass distribution of content is failing to meet thoseneeds. Questions over how to write content for thesesites, how to map activities for them—all of these issuesbecome far more complicated when we examine theactual experiences of users, rather than simply hopingfor the best case scenario within a single system such asHulu or Netflix. It is up to technical communicators topoint out these issues, help shape new policies, and bethose users’ advocates if we are to see improvements inthe distribution of this content.Mapping Experiences of Music Listening in theUnited States and EuropeThe case examines the difficulties in listening to musiconline, primarily looking at the use of social mediaand musicians’ Web sites as we trace complicationsfor Americans, Europeans, and visitors to Europe.Issues of location and citizenship create a tenuousrelationship between the technologies and peopleinvolved in these experience networks.In the United States, there are numerous legalchoices for listening to streaming music. One of thesesystems, Pandora, can be accessed through its Website (www.pandora.com) and its stand-alone desktopapplication (Pandora One). The company positionsPandora as a “music discovery service” that uses the“Music Genome Project” to create music experiencesthat users will enjoy (Pandora, 2010a). The GenomeProject uses “complex musical DNA” to build stationsbased on a particular song, album, artist, or genrechosen by the user. The user can then alter the stationselections by voting for the song to stay in the collection(thumbs up) or be excluded (thumbs down).To register for Pandora, a user must supply a U.S.-based zip code to prove residency; using Pandora isforbidden outside of the United States. In addition tozip codes, geographic location is confirmed via InternetProtocol (IP) addresses. IP addresses are assigned tocomputer systems based on location.IP addresses outside of the United States areautomatically blocked from accessing Pandora. Instead,IP addresses outside of the country receive a Web pagestating that access is not permitted in the country inVolume 57, Number 3, August 2010 l Technical Communication 313