Everyware - Section Three
Section three cited some thought provoking insights, but also did not have provide as much evidence as I would like. (But I guess that is the point, and also the problem, of having each thought structured around a 2-4 page thesis.) I found one statement particularly interesting, but then later dismissed it, due to the quote not being referenced to an actual analyst. "One rather optimistic analyst sees the market for the "digital home" componentry alone growing to $1 trillion worldwide by the end of the decade.." Who is this analyst, and where is this prediction coming from?
But all cynicism aside, I do think that Greenfield made some compelling arguments. Most notably about the "periphery." Which is your ability to attune to something without attending to it explicitly, as in your peripheral vision. I do agree that the most compelling technologies are less intrusive and are informative without overburdening.
This made me about what I am attune to, and immediately made me think back to when I was apartment hunting this summer. I thought about how having a dishwasher, air conditioning and laundry facilities are not a staple for any building, in any city. Which made it slightly hard to grasp the notion that we are moving towards an era of the "digital home."
On a positive note, I was thrilled to read about a few projects that were mentioned in the book, the "Attention Fader" and "Live Wire." Attention Fader is a framed picture, that is actually digitized to subtly displace images, according to how active or inactive your email inbox is. Live Wire is a long string that looks like a noodle, and hangs from the ceiling. The string swings around, and its intensity depends on the level of ethernet traffic in the building.
I also enjoyed treading the thesis on surveillance. I took the class, Every Bit You Make, last term and have since then been thinking about how we are all being monitored in some fashion or another. The notion of using surveillance for access control for buying alcohol made me think of the idea of cash free bars. Bouncers could not longer be needed if:
-you could only buy drinks with your credit card
-the credit card was able to identify your age
-only one drink can be bought at a time (only you can buy your own drinks)
Of course I immediately thought of reasons why this would never work (underage liability being the main one) but the fact that a small piece of plastic could replace a person's job, even in a bar setting, I think is particularly interesting.