Today's sessions were kept quite light and easy on the brain. We were treated to three presentations from Nokia representatives, focusing on different areas that Nokia is invested in.
First up was Adam Greenfield with "The Long Here, the Big Now".
- "Everyware" - all objects and surfaces of everyday life are able to sense, process, receive, display, store, transmit and take physical action on information
- South Korea closest country/society to incorporate everyware, ubiquitous computing simplified to "u-", e.g. u-Cheonggyecheong - computing networks everywhere, u-City Songdo
- but need to understand human desire and needs, e.g. how people use their mobile devices
- no sovereignty of the physical, e.g. person talking on phone and walking in the mall is living his life on the phone, not the mall
- that which primarily conditions choice and action in the city is no longer about physical environment but networked experiences
- "Long Here" - layer a persistent and retrievable history over machine-readable data, e.g. Oakland Crimespotting, geotagged pictures
- "Big Now" - making total real-time space become a present and tangible reality, e.g. hundreds of Twitter streams describing what people are doing in a city, MIT SENSEable City Lab
- soft wall - networked mechanisms designed to actively deny or delay experiences, e.g. benches that are tilted forward to make it difficult to sit
- nothing is as interesting about a place as having that information in that place, e.g. Oakland Crimespotting is relevant in Oakland but not elsewhere
- information processing dissolving in behvaiour, e.g. Hong Kong women swing their purchases instead of tapping their Octopus card in buses and train stations
- city moves from browsing (passive) to searching (active)
Udo Szabo next took the stage to talk about "The Power of WE".
- power of the collective, i.e. to change people's social and psychological habits
- connecting people beyond phones, e.g. Ovi
- from disconnected to connected, e.g. cameras, GPS
- from physical to digital, e.g. phone light, air ticket
- from virtual world to physical world, e.g. putting photos online instead of avatars
- carbon - 50 million acres of forest destroyed - equivalent to 18-25% of global carbon emissions
- water - 3,000 gallons of water to feed a cow for a burger
- waste - one-third of world's resources have been consumed in the past 40 years
- 4 things that can play in the quest for sustainable future:
- creativity, e.g. inspire / entertain people about ecological matters
- stimulate environmental consciousness, e.g. Watson, a box that displays electricity use
- communities, e.g. Freecycle
- power of collective, e.g. Carrotmob
- Group 1: Energy
- people are lazy
- passive technology, e.g. house switches off sockets when you leave house
- Group 2: Transport
- GPS to find passengers for car pool
- reduce packaging to reduce transportation
- Group 3: Waste
- phone recycling
- life-long phones
- mobile technology for whole system, rather than just phones
- Group 4: Food/Water
- RFID for improved food manufacturing
- priority parking for green shoppers
- mobile alert for expiring food
We said our goodbyes, exchanged contact details, took pictures, and generally just relaxed for the rest of the time. I waited with two others for our ride to the airport. The flight out was at 6:30pm, and I was a bit worried that it would be delayed, knowing how such regional flights usually are. Fortunately, we got out on time, and I was on my way home.
Thanks to Donna Suffling for putting up with constant emails before the event, and Nokia for sponsoring my trip and organising the whole thing!
Aside: I know that I had written previously that I was unable to go to Open Lab. However, after some shuffling of my schedule and talks with the right people, I was able to go for this. So thanks also to those who made this possible, you know who you are!
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Nokia Open Lab - day 1
Nokia Open Lab - day 2
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