Note: live notes, probably incomplete, possibly misunderstood. Please post comments, links to photos, videos, or other coverage in the comments. Rafi founded Minitel start-ups, and now makes wifi rabbits.
Calm technologies. Attention economy: screens require an exclusive attention span — putting more things on the screen is maybe not a solution. Why not provide information through other channels?
In the beginning, chips were expensive. 1 computer for several users. Then chips became more affordable, and today, so cheap you can stick them everywhere. 1 user, several computers.
Why do teddy-bears speak? They used to be pure plush, and now they have a chip and sing stupid songs.
All home appliances networked: never happened. Why?
- not that appealing, no fun
- expensive and not that sexy (too much effort)
- proprietary tech, complex to set up
- loss of control
Violet’s strategy:
- affordable products
- not too useful, because too useful is boring
- expanding the internet, not something radically new
- user in the middle, control
- don’t think you can do everything: open standards, let the community in
Nabaztag
- proof of concept
- “If you can connect a rabbit, you can connect anything.”
- somewhat absurd
- rabbits are cute and have ears
- there is a life after the PC
- light, speaks, music, reads, moves ears, hears, RFID reader — does all sorts of things
- use? short reports, read RSS feeds…
- emotional messenger, physical avatar of your friends
- rabbit marriage — very stupid but people love it (ear movement sync)
- sold with Gallimard RFID-enabled children book (can read it — a step back from the idea that the future of books is electronic)
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