[IP] More on Toshiba showing blogs to consumers
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dan Gillmor <dan@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: January 9, 2006 11:27:30 AM EST
To: Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: More on Toshiba showing blogs to consumers
This fits into the category of “every object can tell a story.” But it’s
hardly 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 the
handheld 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 Google
reveals that the maker had at one point recalled the product because a
significant ingredient wasn’t on the label. That might be interesting
information 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 me
I will kill you.’”
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