Massively Networked

DIY civil works for the 21st century

Residents of Kauai heard news that flood damage in much-touristed Polihale State Park would take the cash-strapped state two years and US$4 million to remedy, likely forcing several businesses to shut down. Eight days later the repairs were complete. For (almost) free. Did the state realize the potential impact on local business, get really clever about sourcing supplies and kick the project into high gear? No. Residents affected by damage volunteered their time and donated supplies to get 'er done. Welcome to DIY civil works in action.

Horatio Alger bootstrapping, lack of stigma attached to failure and openness to change provide much of the scaffolding for the mythos that shapes attitudes in the United States - so perhaps it's no surprise that Hawaii residents felt empowered to ignore the state's answer and find a way to fix the park themselves. What makes this story potentially more interesting is when you align it with the current growing economic crisis and other DIY movements afoot. What happens when economic necessity meets DIY culture and a technological platform that enables massively networked coordination of resources?

John Geraci, founder of DIYCity.org, has a practical vision for participatory civil engagement by creating open-source tools that can draw upon the collective intelligence of city residents to find ways to create the city they want. Much like the Kauai example, citizens would be drawn together by a common frustration - say, inefficiencies in the public transit system - and collectively assemble the human and technological resources to make public transportation a better experience.

Unlike Kauai, however, the DIY civil works projects need not be in response to a crisis. These projects could simply start with the question "What would improve your experience of the city?" or "What would make your life more enjoyable? More fun? More satisfying?" The emergent nature of massively networked communications can coalesce a movement toward positive and creative changes that could not have been anticipated by rational, bureaucratic processes.

Moreover, the coalescence and focusing of human intent is only part of the DIY equation. The other part is enabling the physical environment to participate in the communication. Right now there are hundreds of projects in maker/hacker spaces that are bootstrapping technological innovations on the cheap. Many of these projects leverage wireless technology, inexpensive circuit boards and radio frequency tagging to create environmentally-responsive communicants that can be embedded within physical spaces. The Arduino open source electronics platform, for example, puts creating something like an iPhone-like accelerometer within the reach of a reasonably intelligent tinkerer.

Take the kind of focused human intent found in the Kauai example, empower it with inexpensive and accessible creative resources, feed it all into a massively networked platform for communication and collaboration - and, like the folks on Kauai, we need not wait for the state to set the agenda any longer. The tools for 21st century DIY civil works are in our hands right now.

April 14, 2009 Update: A great example of DIY civil works from Estonia

5 Trends shaping the emerging interactive marketplace

The interactive marketplace is no doubt beginning its next round up the spiral of change. Here are 5 trends that very likely could create a game-changing environment for business - and some that are already starting to do so.

1. The internet leaving the internet

Mobile devices (smartphones, wearable tech), programmable tags (QR, RFID), information embedded within physical environments (visual information overlays, projected displays, smart paper) image recognition (visual search, image-driven applications) and gestural user interfaces are examples of technologies that allow us to access the Web unimpeded by bulky machinery.

Potential impact: The trend toward pervasive and transparent access will take expectations about instantaneous access to time-and-situation-relevant information to a whole new level. Successful companies will do more than simply maintain an up-to-date website and participate in social media.

Timeline: Fast.

If true: Businesses that can find innovative ways to provide individualized, situation-dependent, useful (and enjoyable) information will have the advantage.

2. The infosphere is "learning" at an increasingly rapid pace

Mass adoption of social media (Twitter, Facebook, et al), physical objects that communicate location and status - among other communicants - feed an increasingly fat stream of data into the infosphere. Couple that with improved tools for data mining, semantic analysis and data visualization and you enable the capacity for pattern recognition and learning at an increasingly rapid pace.

Potential impact: The trend toward being able to access and make sense from vast amounts of information creates an environment that puts those who fail to participate in the infosphere at an (almost pre-) cognitive disadvantage.

Timeline: Fast

If true: Businesses will want to be assimilated into the infosphere in order to understand the rapidly-changing zeitgeist so they can continue to provide desirable, differentiated and relevant products and services to the very person who wants them.

3. Location-aware devices are giving places memories

GPS films give you access to what happened right where you're located now as well as let you add your own creative contribution. Skyhook remembers who or what was where and when via smartphone GPS. Google Latitude can store where you, your friends and family have been for later retrieval. These location-aware devices create accessible layers of memory attached to specific places.

Potential impact: The ability to embed temporal data onto a physical location that can later be retrieved and added to creates an unprecedented depth of field to our experience of physical locations - allowing us to impact others' experience of them as well.

Timeline: Moderate

If true: Leading edge businesses have an opportunity to use the GPS film-like open source platform, for instance, to begin playing with embedding stories onto locations and enabling customers to add their own layers.

4. Formerly "inert" objects are becoming animated, lifelike

Plants twitter, homes know our preferences and needs, and respond accordingly, robots display increasingly naturalistic movements, responses and gestures, machines talk with one another, and cars gently reprimand us if we choose not to take the recommended turn. Recent developments in efficient energy production, quantum computing and nanotechology could push the animation of formerly inert objects to a whole new level quickly - if you believe the enthusiasts.

Potential impact: The ability to interact with intelligent objects in a lifelike way will change our perception of non-animal objects from, say, decor or useful tools to collaborative entities.

Timeline: Moderate to slow

If true: Opportunity for businesses to take advantage of simple tools that can add value to products by making them more usefully interactive. If my product were a "living" thing, what more would it do? What would it communicate? How would it collaborate with its user?

5. Biophysical reality merging with technology

Devices that allow us to control remote objects by merely thinking, nanoscale medical devices, immersive virtual/physical environments and bio-robotics are examples of how the lines between our physical reality and technology are becoming increasingly blurry.

Potential impact: The trend toward blurring the lines between where we stop and where machines start takes expectations of personal agency and what is possible to an entirely new level.

Timeline: Moderate to slow. 

If true: Likely a small niche of early adopters with the rest coming slowly along, if at all. Opportunity for business is perhaps "ain't it cool" toys to raise visibility initially. Too many unknowns to predict longer term opportunity at this point, but a trend to watch.

Whether each of the specific technologies mentioned above catch on remains to be seen. However these play out, we are already moving toward a world where the how, what, when, where and why we interact with information is changing:

How we consume information: Sight, sound & motion - we are moving from a primarily desktop and text interface to a visual, aural and kinetic one.

Where & when we access information: Everywhere & anytime - progressive virtualization is making physical and temporal location less relevant.

Who & what we can transact with: Anyone & anything - personal/commercial distinctions are eroding and internal/external definitions are becoming more fluid.

Why we engage: Transformative experience - we are arguably shifting from material, time-bound goals toward experiential ones that add personal and social value to the commercial mix.

What do you think?