Roo Reynolds - What’s Next?

Blogjects and Tweetjects

Posted by Roo - 24/04/08 at 10:04:59 pm

Before there were blogjects, there were blobjects. In the closing speech at SIGGRAPH 2004, Bruce Sterling started by talking about blobjects, or blob-shaped consumer items.

Blobjects are the period objects of our time. They are the physical products that the digital revolution brought to the consumer shelf.

Sterling goes on (via ‘gizmos’, the current state of the art) to introduce spime.

At the moment, you are end-using Gizmos. My thesis here, my prophesy to you, is that, pretty soon, you will be wrangling Spimes.

This subject is covered more completely in his Shaping Things book, which is reviewed here by Cory Doctorow. Cory handily sums up Spime thus:

A Spime is a location-aware, environment-aware, self-logging, self-documenting, uniquely identified object that flings off data about itself and its environment in great quantities

Meanwhile, to fill the gap between blobjects and spime, we have blogjects. Julian Bleecker’s ‘Manifesto for Networked Objects — Cohabiting with Pigeons, Arphids and Aibos in the Internet of Things‘ introduces Blogjects, describing them as an “early ancestor” to spime. While spime is still speculative, Bleecker says

I can make Blogjects now because the semantics are immediately legible — objects, that blog. Tonight, I can go into my laboratory and begin to experiment with what a world might be like in which I co-occupy space with objects that blog.

Bleecker says there are three key characteristics of a blogject:

• Blogjects track and trace where they are and where they’ve been;
• Blogjects have self-contained (embedded) histories of their encounters and experiences
• Blogjects always have some form of agency — they can foment action and participate; they have an assertive voice within the social web.

The last point is important, and while he’s not expecting them to pass the Turing test, they need to interact. Good bloggers don’t ignore their comments; thats where most of the fun happens. In the same way, blogjects participate and converse both between themselves and with us.

The significance of the Internet of Things is not at all about instrumented machine-to-machine communication, or sensors that spew reams of data credit card transactions, or quantities of water flows, or records of how many vehicles passed a particular checkpoint along a highway. Those sensor-based things are lifeless, asocial recording instruments when placed alongside of the Blogject. … The social and political import of the Internet of Things is that things can now participate in the conversations that were previously off-limits to Things. … Things, once plugged into the Internet, will become agents that circulate food for thought, that “speak on” matters from an altogether different point of view, that lend a Thing-y perspective on micro and macro social, cultural, political and personal
matters.

If a blogject is an object that blogs, a tweetject is clearly an object that tweets (an intransitive verb: the act of using Twitter).

There are already lots of examples of objects using Twitter to interact with people, usually to report about the state of things in a convenient form. Botanicalls is an interesting project, aimed at “enhancing person-plant communication” using tools that can be used by people as well as plants. As a result, Pothos is a plant that knows when it needs watering (learn how to make your own).

Gareth Jones wrote about getting his laptop to tweet when Bluetooth devices come in and out of range. For a while that script was updating as gareth_laptop on Twitter. As long as some relevant mobile phones and laptops have Bluetooth enabled, there are some useful and interesting elements of personal presence detection here. Who is nearby? With some additional second-order agents running to work out what these devices are and what they mean (is Gareth at home? If he’s at work, who is nearby?).

Andy Stanford-Clark has an impressively complex home automation setup in his house on the Isle of Wight. It’s been online for a few years already, but has more recently been exposed via Twitter as andy_house. (Although Kelly raises bots as one of her Twitter pet peeves, she makes an exception for Andy’s house.) Andy also Twitter-enabled the Red Jet ferries which go to and from the Isle of Wight, where he lives.

There are many more tweetjects out there too.

There have been lots of weather bots on Twitter for a long time. Here’s one for Brighton and here are links to many more. Radio 1 is tweeting the playlist and summary information about listeners’ text messages. Mario Menti set up a lot more BBC bots too. Tom Morris hooked the various London tube lines up to Twitter. The Lovell telescope at Jodrell Bank tweets what it’s pointing at (and it’s not alone). Tower Bridge lets us know when it’s opening and closing (and for what). The Heavens Above user updates Londoners with the times and directions of Iridium flares and International Space Station flybys over their city.

There are many more, and lots more will no doubt be added this year. Currently, most Twitter bots are one-directional. Things will get really interesting when more of them converse as well as simply report.

Further reading:

• In this post I’ve already linked to both Shaping Things by Bruce Sterling (and the 2004 SIGGRAPH speech), as well as Julian Bleecker’s ‘Manifesto for Networked Objects — Cohabiting with Pigeons, Arphids and Aibos in the Internet of Things‘ essay.
• Everyware by Adam Greenfield is relevant, though it deals mainly with the near-term. Andy Piper has a review which you might find helpful.
• OpenSpime is a project to enable “individuals and corporations to better understand their environment, through the use of a series of GPS-enabled sensors”. Read Tish Shute’s introduction on UgoTrade too.

Twitter Updates for 2008-02-20

Posted by Roo - 20/02/08 at 11:02:59 pm

• Twitter updates from my mobile seem not to be working today. How annoying. #
• So far have given a presentation, seen Miguel Imas talk about storytelling and Nicole Dempster talk about the Guardian’s use of social media #
• Now scoffing a quick lunch under the golden arches on Victoria St (free wifi, music is too loud). #
• Next up: heading to Russell’s office near Warren St for a chat with @russelldavies and @bowbrick. #
• (The event was a Post Graduate Diploma in Internal Communication Management workshop) #
• At the Bafta bar with @rachelclarke @danhon and @jeremyet talking about our SXSW panel. Its not like a court case; we’re allowed to conspire #
• And I’m home. That was a long day. #
• I thought I was going to @russelldavies’ office in my tweet earlier. Turned out to be his (charming and lovely) house. I met Arthur! #
• Seems I’m going to Oxford to give another BCS talk tomorrow evening. I’m going to try not to forget to record this one. #

Twitter Updates for 2008-02-09

Posted by Roo - 09/02/08 at 11:02:59 pm

• Gently tutting at Matter blog for using Creative Commons Attribution Flickr photos without credit: http://matterbox.co.uk/matterblog/?p=48 #
• It seems tutting had the desired effect. #
• Lunch, then a drive. #
• Combining lunch and the drive: KFC for breakfast on the way to somewhere coastal. I love the freedom to be childish that adulthood brings. #
• Arundel and Lancing are lovely. Brighton is nice, but wow the traffic sucks. Going for a walk on the beach. #
• Park first. Once you get IN to Brighton it really is lovely. There are people in the park exhibiting various skills. Juggling. Skating… #

Twitter Updates for 2008-01-29

Posted by Roo - 29/01/08 at 11:01:59 pm

• LinkedIn gardening. Adding people I’ve previously missed. Feel free to connect if we know each other: http://icanhaz.com/linkedroo #
• Reading John Humphrys in Saturday’s Daily Mail on social networking & virtual worlds. He has no friends online? Virtual doesn’t mean unreal. #
• Maybe “virtual world” is a confusing name. Maybe “online social environment” or any of the other dozens of alternatives would be better #
• “Multi User Virtual Environment” obviously suffers in the same way. “(immersive) online world” might be a good fit. #

Twitter Updates for 2008-01-23

Posted by Roo - 23/01/08 at 11:01:59 pm

• Pardon me boy, is that the 9:22 train from Southampton Parkway to Swansea, changing at Reading? #
• Coming into Swansea, and something interesting is happening to the sky. It’s turning orange-grey. Some unreal combination of cloud and sun. #
• Talk went very well. Loads of questions. Now heading back to Southampton. #
• ‘Quiet carriage’ means no mobiles or headphones, but please do sit there TALKING VERY LOVELY (I meant LOUDLY) to your friend as much as you like, obviously. #
• Over eight hours of travelling for a 1 hour talk. I’m glad I went, but I’ve rarely been so keen to get home as I am today. Roll on Reading. #
• Home. Deciding to work at home tomorrow. #

Photo of Swansea in the rain by webber0075

Twitter Updates for 2008-01-10

Posted by Roo - 10/01/08 at 11:01:59 pm

• Suitably messy and confused episode of In Our Time on the charge of the light brigade. Melvyn Bragg sounds a bit grumpy today. #
• Heading to Southampton Uni soon. Apart from hosting meetings at my actual house, this is the most convenient venue ever. #
• ‘The Wire’ season 2 DVD set just arrived, with season 3 still on the way. See? I *do* pay to watch TV after all. :-) #
• Hearing about ’silent disco’. To avoid noise regs, 500 sets of cordless headphones listening to one of two live DJs. #
• Watching @andysc present on pervasive messaging. First time I’ve seen him for ages. He’s very very good. #
• Confetti: britcom classic or annoying “mad as cheese” flop? I have yet to decide. #
• Impressed by @robertbrook’s new Hansard prototype: http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/ UK parliamentary debates have never been so much fun #
• Amusing myself by searching Hansard for naughty words. Feel like a child with a dictionary again. #

Twitter Updates for 2007-12-19 & 20

Posted by Roo - 20/12/07 at 11:12:59 pm

• Awake much later than I want to be. Thinking about next year. #
• Thanks for the seesmic invites, Chris & Lloyd. You stars. Now I need to follow through on my promise of getting a new router and trying it. #
• Heading to Salisbury today to buy final few christmassy bits and pieces. Then on to @epredator’s lair later tonight to say hello. #
• I could care less about Tweeterboard. I’m going to use Twitter how I want to, not to play some rankings game. Must. Not. Compulsively. Check #
• Shopping. L:Salisbury #
• Seeing @reynolds (no relation) Blood Sweat and Tea book in Waterstones makes me smile. #
• In ur HSBC, closin ur accounts #
• Pretty much shopped out now. What a lot of lovely things. Home time. #
• As promised, buying a new router. Back (from Belkin) to trusty old Linksys. This is a WAG54GS. Hopefully will even work with the DS. #
• New router installed and working. Yay! I can access half the web again. Anyone want a broken Belkin MIMO-G? :-) #
• Heading to @epredator’s lair soon. #
• Guitar Hero and Sing Star. Now that’s what I call music! #
• Mrs Roo is feeling ill because of In Our Time on R4. Too much talk of blood, phlegm and black and yellow bile. #
• Tate Modern. I do love Rothko. #
• Borough Market #
• Covent Garden #
• Chicken Kolmino at Surma in East Dulwhich. Yummy. #

It was nice to see my old friend Kybernetikos this week. Thanks for putting us up, and introducing us to the best Indian restaurant in the whole of East Dulwich.

Dopplr+RedMonk+YellowPark++

Posted by Roo - 18/12/07 at 05:12:29 pm

Dopplr, in case you’ve still not heard of it, is excellent. I’ve been saying that for a while, so rather than go over all that again here’s a link to a really early review and a later update. It’s now in public beta, so there’s really no excuse not to sign up.

Before the Dopplr Redmonk YellowPark party yesterday, Andy and I got a chance to see the Dopplr/RedMonk UK office, and sneak a photo of Matt Biddulph and his laptop for my small but growing collection of photographs of geeks with their laptop stickers.

We got to take part in the Dopplr Posin’ meme too. This all began when Bobbie Johnson wrote a piece for the Guardian back in July (probably the first mainstream attention for Dopplr). His photographer, Sarah Lee, got a now-classic shot of Matt Jones and Matt Biddulph standing in a doorway. Following in the footsteps of people standing in the same doorway, attempting the same Confident Matt and Nervous Matt poses, Andy and I humbly took out place in the Dopplr Posin’ chain yesterday.

This afternoon, I used Sqirlz Morph to quickly turn the sequence into an animated flash movie. (Around 1MB, so it may take a few moments to load…)

The party itself was brilliant. Hosted in an upstairs room of the infamous Macbeth pub in Hoxton, London’s geekerati gathered, drank heavily, ate pizza, and made new Twitter friendships. Having recently blogged about TheyWorkForYou, I was particularly excited to (finally) meet Robert Brook (who helps self-organising groups prototype services for the UK Parliament) and Rob McKinnon who helps him, and also happens to be the genius behind TheyForForYou.co.nz.Here are some photos from various people who were there. Click on each thumbnail to see the original.

Great fun. Thanks to Chris Dalby/YellowPark, to Matt and the rest of the Dopplr gang, to James for booking such a characterful venue.

Twitter Updates for 2007-12-17 & 18

Posted by Roo - 17/12/07 at 11:12:59 pm

Twitter was down this morning, so missed my earlier texts about heading into London, having a meeting in Southbank, meeting up with Andy Piper and heading on to see Dopplr and join the party.

• Hanging out at Macbeth (Hoxton St). Chatting with @mattb, @dominiccampbell, @andypiper, @ccmehil, @monkchips, and many more. #
• New arrivals, @renzephyr, @bobbiejohnson and @aleks #
  [Update: I also got to meet @yellowpark, @robertbrook, @delineator, @welshcathy, ...]
• Excellent party. Open bar, pizza, great people… Now for the train home. 22:35 from Waterloo to Southampton Parkway. Tired now. #
• Home again. Pleased to be starting my Christmas holiday from, oh, now. #
• Feeling a little lightheaded. I think it’s the first day of holiday kicking in. :-) Lots of new twitterfriends this morning, post party. #
• I’ve run out of Moo cards again. How very non-un-professional of me. #
• Adding embedded Yahoo mp3 player to http://speechification.com/ sidebar. Looks rather cute. Thanks to @gilest for the idea. #
• Really loving the Kleptones “Live’r Than You’ll Ever Be” live set at Bestival 2007: http://tinyurl.com/25m2h5 #
• Can’t get to del.icio.us, seesmic, Feedburner or store.apple.com from network at home. Tried the obvious stuff (inc ISP). I blame the router #
• Speaking of seesmic, if a kind soul were to send me an invite I’d probably have to buy a new router in order to finally try it. <Hint /> #

Twitter Updates for 2007-12-16

Posted by Roo - 16/12/07 at 11:12:59 pm

• Half way though EVE’s daily(!) hour long scheduled downtime. Those crazy Icelanders. #

• Once again, addicted to EVE Online. Popped once already (in a battleship! Taking too many risks in low-sec…). Hello, Christmas holidays. #