From: Emlyn O'regan (oregan.emlyn@healthsolve.com.au)
Date: Tue Jun 03 2003 - 00:00:13 MDT
> Now that, I think this list can do. C'mon, everyone,
> any ideas for pieces of TransHumanity, Inc. that we
> could start up today for, say, under US$10 million?
> [snip]
>
> Any killer apps for wearable computers/augmented
> reality nearing marketability? (Facial recognition
> doesn't count yet: among other things, you'd need to
> get the error rate way down before the market would go
> for it, or so say the studies I've seen.)
Here's a really basic one.
Networked mobile computing devices (wearables, palm type PDAs, souped up
mobiles hooked on G3, wireless networked laptops) seem to be missing a
killer app to really drive the sector. Having google on your telephone is
nice, but if you're not a tech geek, is it reason enough?
For people to carry a new expensive gadget around with them (a pocket sized
computer fitting any of the descriptions above that has always-on internet
access), they will need a compelling use (like mobile phones came with -
always having a phone with you).
It strikes me that the technologies that help people fit tighter into
networks - business and personal - are the ones that people will adopt
quickly. But they've already got phones, including SMS, mobile email
sometimes... what else would they need?
It strikes me that SMS and phone (and email in the same class as SMS) is
very unsophisticated tool given what it is used for. I contend that people
use these communication tools primarily to coordinate interaction with other
people... getting together, going out, coordinating arrival times... many
variations on the theme of meeting.
In the corporate world that I've been inhabiting for far too much of my
adult life, people do this with more sophisticated tools, especially
in-house. Primarily they use the schedule in MS Outlook, which allows them
to arrange meetings, browse other people's schedules, and basically fit in
better and more easily with other people's agendas and schedules.
But there's a wall at the edge of the corporation. You can't get to the
schedules of people outside, and even if you could, people outside a corp
might usually be wandering around somewhere.
Automated schedules with reminders for yourself and ways for arranging
meetings with others are limited by being internal to organisations, and
being desk (desktop) bound.
Enter the Mobile Wireless PC (be it PDA, mobile phone, wearable, whatever).
Add the internet. Stir.
HotSchedule
What is called for is a globally available (internet, and possibly web
delivered) scheduling system; it would be to scheduling what hotmail is to
memos. It would cater for all the mobile devices, and provide all the kinds
of services that Outlook provides; reminders, scheduling personal items,
arranging meetings with others based on their schedule, without having to
actually interact with the others involved. It could extend to all kinds of
workflow style applications, but roaming.
If we imagine a world where people had taken to HotSchedule en-masse...
Personal use: People would be arranging to meet via this tool. "Locations"
(ie: public areas, restaurants and cafes, bars, etc) would register with
HotSchedule, and commercial "locations" might vie to be a local meeting
place of choice by offering special deals to those who organised their
meeting through HotSchedule. People would be able to set up security so that
people they trust could schedule their time and see the more intimate
details of their schedule, whilst hiding these from outsiders, or only
giving them a rough overview. The potential for young people especially (who
love something as braindead as SMS) to adopt this big time are huge, imo.
Business use: Businesses like doctors, accountants, lawyers, anywhere where
you arrange an appointment, could use HotSchedule as a web booking system.
People could then arrange their own appointments without needing to interact
with administrative staff.
I'm sure there's lot more... let your imagination run away with you.
How does it take off? I'm pretty fuzzy on this; basically, you'd need to get
accepted by social groups a bit at a time. Phone companies could sell it as
a feature of newer devices. Hopefully it would be hugely attractive to
twenty-somethings, as a start.
Why is it extropic?
I see this as being a killer app for mobile networked computing. And that
field really needs a killer app... so far the early devices look like toys
for overpaid geeks. But we can all see, I think, the massive potential
social benefit, and the amazing opportunities that would present themselves,
if everyone was hooked up to the 'net all the time, wherever they happened
to be. That kind of network deserves to be an extropic goal, and this idea
is one way to bring that situation into being. Once people adopt these
devices en-masse, the new possibilities will make it strongly
self-sustaining, analogous to the way that SMS and web features now sell
phones that could never have been built solely for the purpose of those
features (phone calls were the killer app).
This is way too long already. But there's my most recent idea.
Emlyn
(btw I know the name HotSchedule sucks. It's meant to invoke the analogy,
not to be a permanent name)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Tue Jun 03 2003 - 00:14:04 MDT