Interesting People mailing list archives
More on Toshiba showing blogs to consumers
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2006 11:51:13 -0500
Begin forwarded message: From: Dan Gillmor <dan () gillmor com> Date: January 9, 2006 11:27:30 AM EST To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net> Subject: More on Toshiba showing blogs to consumers This fits into the category of “every object can tell a story.” But it’shardly a new idea — remember the infamous “CueCat” scanner? — and it doesn’t
sound all that difficult in any event. Consider what Marc Smith at Microsoft Research was doing more than three years ago as part of their ongoing “Aura” project. As I recounted in my book:
Using what is essentially off-the-shelf technology, he’s equipped a handheld computer with a wireless Internet connection and a bar-code scanner that he uses to scan products in stores. His computer then connects to a server that collects data from Google and other sources, and shows him the results on thehandheld screen.Suddenly, far more than the price is available. Data about the product, and its maker, is available in a far wider information ecosystem. Was a shirt made by slave labor? Did the can of processed food come from a company with a record of poisoning streams in its factories’ backyards? Did the company have a reputation for being good to employees and the environment? Smith likes to show a supermarket scan he once did of a cereal box. The top item in Googlereveals that the maker had at one point recalled the product because a significant ingredient wasn’t on the label. That might be interestinginformation to someone hyper-allergic to that ingredient. If every object can tell a story, Smith said, “One of the more profound stories is ‘If you eat meI will kill you.’”
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