Blogjects and the new ecology of things _ lift06 workshop

1
blogjects and the new ecology of things nicolas
nova, utrecht, march 2006
2
background


Julian Bleecker
3
http//research.techkwondo.com/files/WhyThingsMatt
er.pdf ltltltlt manifesto
4
blogjects - objects that blog

• but not just literally
• an artifact that can disseminate a record of its
  experiences to the Web
• would report the history of its interactions with
  other objects and with people
• main point participation in the exchange of
  ideas (web2.0?)
• not just publishing, rather circulate
  conversations
• traces / history / agency

5
traces

• blogjects know where they have been, where they
  are, where they are going in the geospatial sense
• blogjects know where you are proximity matters
  too!

6
history blogjects know from whence they have
arrived

• remnants of experiences, encounters, proximity
  interactions.
• a way to share those events and encounters and
  disseminate them, or leave them behind in
  particular locales as a way to fill in traces
  with semantic or even just instrumental remarks
• indexicality a reference to information located
  elsewhere

7
agency

• blojects are assertive having a voice
• ability to act and to be articulate
• capacity to exchange and participate in channels
  of communication
• engaged in the circulation of culture
• with all these characteristics, objects become
  first class citizens

8
warning

• blogjects evocative meme
• doesnt mean that object will only (or even)
  blog
• blog here being engaged in social
  activities/networking/exchange.

9
early blogject
Aibo diary gtgtgtgtgt similar the contextual flickr
uploader
10
early blogject
pigeon blog monitoring air quality by
equipping GPS on pigeons (Beatriz da Costa)
11
early blogject

• trackStick (http//www.trackstick.com/)
• magi wand that tracks where it goes remembers
  where it's been
• records its own location, time, date, speed,
  heading and altitude at preset intervals
• over 1Mb of memory

12
early blogject

• slogging (sensor logging)
• example sensor network installed in buildings
  (light, temperature, acoustic, mag)
• datablogging http//reger.com/about/index.log
• history of a room queried from the lamps web
  page.. (aula lamp)

13
some people said

• blogjects gt things matter gt chaotic realm
• having first class citizens inevitably lead to
  the existence of other class who is first class?
  who gives order?
• importance of closed loops blogjects should
  upload but also reads information, and if no
  objects read nothing may happen
• who's the editor behind that? will the object
  just report something to us? or will they have
  more capabilities?

14
why would we want blogjects?

• any idea about this? Why would you want them?

15
then we had a workshop
(people obviously disagreeing on what blogjects
are)
16
project1 a day in the life of my camera
17
project1 take-aways

• needs to be a dialogue between blogjects (not
  just a one way thing like the Aibo blog) somebody
  post something and another might comment and
  maybe you don't answer.
• faux-blogjects?
• post-gps, no one really care about lat/longitude
  or where people go but we care about things that
  are around/nearby
• sharing/not managing exceptions?
• how much independence we allow for those objects?

18
project2 blogject crossing
19
project2 take-aways

• the blogject can inform in some ways other people
  and this information can be fed back to the
  community to modify something
• collaborative production of information gt creates
  and history of interaction gt leads to
  modifications of habits (using a blogject can
  modify social habits)
• trustability of these information?
• what makes information coming from a similar
  object trustable by the community? in what forms
  do we define trust into this network?
• social reinforcement (radars indicating your
  speed in cities)

20
project3
21
project3 take-aways

• a blogject does also other things that cannot be
  described in terms of blogjects!
• a blogject should also learn from feedback
• New blogject characterstic to be
  remote-controllable, manipulable, or commentable
• a blog is not just a blog but a person who has a
  blog gtblogject and the blog plus its owner.

22
projet4
23
project4 takeaways

• messy pervasive world as opposed to aggregate
  some kind of uniform/standardized things
• there is going to be chaos in a world of blogject
  gt how this chaos would be accepted? identity
  theft or duplication
• - emphasis on interactions between blogjects and
  the world but also between blogjects themselves.
• - the context is important because it affords
  specific interactions for the blogjects, and
  consequently it modifies its future behavior.
• the physical dimension is important too the
  blogject learn through tangibles activities
• the whole game feasible on a mobile phone but the
  crux issue here is that notion of using tangibles
  objects, something embedded

24
shift from objects that blogs to things that IM
(chris heathcote)
25
so?

• "objects" matter! from a variety of perspectives
  policy, privacy, technology design, creating
  meaningful, impactful usage scenarios
• this workshop a kind of "technology fiction"
  exercise gt imagining near-future worlds
• participants brought some highlights
• now gt integrate this in your projects!
• work on your blogjects!

26
thanks

• nicolas.nova_at_epfl.ch