Group items tagged

In Shaping Things, Bruce Sterling identifies RFID or "arphids" as key technological development that enables his imagined objects, "spimes," to function. This video, "Zapped!," by Preemptive Media, provides an easy to understand history of RFID tags, how they're used, for better and worse. The video concludes with the group's own tactical interventions using RFID equipped insects. My main impetus to post it here is to help illuminate the technology and, in doing so, make Sterling's Spimes concept more tangible. "Zapped! by Preemptive Media. Posted April 30, 2008 by Heidi Kumao. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIDClPlKHzE Accessed March 19, 2014

One example of how objects are slowly turning into spimes, is the addition of RFID into products that consumers use on a daily basis. Baltimore is one of a few cities that have begun distributing trashcans to businesses and individual house holds that contain the id chips. It is the hope that they will be able to collect information that will assess the usage of the cans by the customer, as well as other factors that are useful for creating a positive trash-collecting experience both for the company and the customer. Mark Reutter, Mark. "Inside City Hall: Are you ready for "smart" garbage cans?" Baltimore Brew, November 21, 2013

This audio-visual overview of the Internet of Things was published by IBM's Social Media cohorts in 2010. Combining voice-over and well crafted, legible motion graphics, it provides a summary of the underlying concepts of the Internet of Things. In 2004, when Bruce Sterling was first writing about spimes, he mentions the Internet of Things, a then emergent infrastructure linked to build out of RFID enabled gizmos, and eventually, perhaps, spimes. "The Internet of Things" posted by IBMSocialMedia on March 15, 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfEbMV295Kk Accessed March 21, 2014