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Having my afternoon walk at the farm. Gorgeous day. (Taken with instagram)
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I’ve left Headshift/Dachis Group
I’m now working full time on my venture - Amiweb
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Physical things and the net
I’ve been pondering lately about enabling stuff beneath things that hook into the web, big and small. Not crap things like fridges that order their own food (robotic) - but little, pleasant things which could do semi-useful things.
Ages ago, I remember having to figure out how a SIM card can get data from any little thing into the web (and vice versa) via mobile networks. It was a conversation with a commercial guy at Vodafone. These (machine) SIM’s were useful, but on a monthly rate, your product model has to have something that brings in coin monthly. Vending machines used these to transmit stock levels and re-fill requests to distribution centres.
Interesting for large-scale, centralised applications - not as much for little networked products that just need to get some sensory midget of data into the web.
Wi-fi is messy. Access, passwords, etc. It feels like something moving really has to hook into mobile networks. Which means Vodafone, etc.
Actually doing things, or anything that moves is a sensory input though - movement (stepping on a slab or your carpet), turning on your shower (cue get-things-ready in the background), lights (less so - as turning them on/off has functional meaning), wrist watches could do a lot more imo, maybe add a sole extension to your shoes which uses movement to power itself and transmit.
I don’t feel like the provenance of an object will be as interesting as what it can produce through its lifetime and right now for some use - without any attention. Provenance makes a stronger brand, like the story of the contents in a whisky bottle - but it doesn’t come alive with little lights.
Irrespective of all this, the crux is finding those wonderfully killer things that work out of the box, but then also let you use what you buy for something else. Lego bricks that a child could use. Which is not really Arduino or prototyping approaches.
At the back of my mind - is something I read somewhere about blazing into something that people “already do”.
Still sorting out my thoughts. And trying to put structure around the eventual winners and structural needs around this hypothetical world.
The business winners around clusters of physically made things (with people networks) tend to be the long-tail consumables. The suppliers of the Gillette blades you’ll need all the time. Possibly, those that organise and track things on the web, but increasingly, I don’t think the web end of that world will win anything - unless the entire stack is owned by a product company. Which would be a bit like Apple’s closed model from building the screws to selling you music - three years later.
So whatever this Internet of Things turns out to be, the long-running winners might have these characteristics:
- Own the stack, all in, all ambition, all guns - from drill to credit card.
- Own away the use cases for things we “already do” which are now made better
- Add heaps of magic by helping fan-bases become a true ecosystem. Not just enthusiasts that make add-ons and mashups of your main product, but actually have the means to build and market their add-ons. Pure knitting through your product fitting into the hole of another product.
- A new, successful consumer company in this area has a great opp to make physicality an actual brand. Beyond a logo or a colour. Like an actual 3d shape. The brand would be feeling, touching and smelling something. A real brand which connects to the primitive lizard brain.
- Products that cross-fertilise between many useful applications would make sense. A Sugru type of product. Not a specialised range of appliances.
I don’t know much at all about all this - but I think a layman’s perspective is essential to maintain for this particular future cast - it needs to make sense to work.
If this takes off, the infrastructure, especially connectivity would be an obvious winner. Things that are not powered electrically/by battery will have a problem - but kinetic energy and solar could hose in the trickle they need to make connectivity work. I’m trying to picture myself walking into Debenhams and seeing a cloud-hooked thing being demoed for my buying satisfaction!
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When @stuart_cullum said he looked like the crow in his old passport pic, I didn’t believe him… But… by amyeee on Flickr.
An evolving legend!
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my first instagram featuring the awesome @ewebber and @amyeee (Taken with instagram)
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Haven’t heard this in a while. It feels right this Sunday, I don’t know why.
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Hermitage on Flickr.
Theme: Linear by Peter Vidani
