In his brilliant book Shaping Things Bruce Sterling talks about a possible future where every object broadcast its history, its effects on environment, etc - while people become “wranglers” who follow these objects. I love how Sterling connects design, “internet of things” and sustainability - however, one thing he does not discuss is what kinds of interfaces people will need in a world where every objects has its own blog, so to speak.
For instance, if I can follow the lives of 7 billion light bulbs in my city, would I want to do this using Google Reader, NetNewsWire, or Facebook? Probably not.
Similarly, if a grid of images, a photo book, and a slide show were appropriate interfaces when the numbers of images were small, why would I use them to interact with hundreds of millions of images and videos on Flickr and YouTube?
Our interfaces can’t keep up with the exponentially increasing amounts of data they are supposed to reveal.
Just found this feed from Lev Manovich via the amazing Mike Bonifer. Yikes! Exciting…
