Chapter 3: Mobile Personal Content Uncovered 73 still need to consider is the human perspective: how do users interact with personal content, and what are the actions performed on it? In this section, we take a look at understanding personal content from this important point of view. In section 3.2, we discussed different ways of categorizing personal content. A potential categorization model was based on function, that is, how the content was to be experienced. A straightforward way of analyzing the potential interactions with personal content, is by listing these functions: • reading • viewing • listening to • analyzing • expressing personality, etc. The functions above are certainly interactions performed on personal content. However, rather than showing interactions that can be per- formed on it, they are functions that are associated with a specifi c con - tent type. How about interactions generic across all these categories? Our aim is not to create a list of 500-plus verbs containing all poten- tial actions that can be performed on personal content, but rather to provide a tool for understanding the human aspects of experiencing it. A tool that could be used, for instance, as a broad framework for analyzing and assessing devices, systems, applications, and user inter- faces dealing with personal content, and providing some insight into categorizing them. An inherent characteristic of personal content experience is the need to share (section 3.3). Not only is sharing a means to experience personal content with others, but an effi cient distribution channel as well. Therefore, sharing can be considered an important action per- formed on personal content. Before any piece of content can be shared, it must have been retrieved from somewhere. Thinking about inputs and outputs logically leads us to a lifecycle-like model, where content comes from a source, and at least some of it leaves in one way or another. Perhaps we could consider these two aspects in more detail: 1. Incoming content: downloading, receiving, capturing, trading, etc.; 2. Outgoing content: selling, sending, pushing, publishing, etc.