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The geography of data, people and objects is fast becoming transparent. We can now tell where a plane is mid flight, we know how many miles we ran and if we are clever, we can map those miles, we can see exactly where photographs were taken and our cars can be effortlessly guided to our destination by satellites.

Geography has become cool again.

When everything has a chip in it, we will know not just where it is, but also where it's been.

MIT's Trash/Track project is an experiment to show the journey a piece of trash takes.




Icebreaker allows you to track the sheep your garment came from.



Geographic transparency is already an interesting element that brands can add to their utility and it's worth thinking about how your brand might use it.


Posted by Ed Cotton There's an interesting story on Textually about kettles that send messages.

A group that represents the elderly in Australia is looking at some technology that can send a message from a kettle.

The thought being that every time the elderly person makes a cup of tea a message is sent to their children, letting them know that they are OK.

I think the idea of thinking laterally about how information generated by a product can have additional uses is really smart.

Then there's the thought of our products telling us when they need things; cars needing servicing is something we have already, refrigerators needing replenishing is something that's often talked about.

As chip technology gets ever smaller and cheaper, it's possible that most things will have the ability to share information with their owners. Even something as simple as deodorant bottle could send you a "money off next purchase" message when it's running low.

Hopefully, not applications will be as crass and promotional and its worth thinking about what a product might say to its owner if it could talk and how some of those things might be useful.

This might lead to a whole new world for Twitter.


Posted by Ed Cotton