HobbyPrincess blog

Next Aula Talk: David Weinberger

If you are in Helsinki this week, you might like to know that David Weinberger, co-author of the The Cluetrain Manifesto and Fellow at the Harvard's Berkman Institute for Internet & Society gives a talk on Thursday 6:00 pm at the Helsinki School of Economics (Chydenia building - PWC -sali, G-112. The address is Runeberginkatu 22-24, Helsinki).

Topic: The New Shape of Knowledge

"As businesses and media have looked at blogs, they've seen reflections of themselves. This continues a misunderstanding of the Web so persistent that it probably should count as a form of denial. Blogs are not a new form of journalism or primarily consist of teenagers whining about their teachers. Blogs are not even primarily a form of individual expression. They are better understood as conversations. This makes them just one more part of the transformation the Web is working on our social fabric, including the relationship of customers to businesses, employees to managers and business to society."

The event is free and open to the public. Please forward this information to any and all who might be interested.

Example 1: Using thinglinks to follow the life of an object

A story of the PSP case

Making accessories for portable technological devices is an entertaining hobby activity, but it is also a growing business. As soon as Apple registered that personalized iPod socks, sleeves, and cases were becoming popular items among the iPod users, it started to sell its own iPod accessories. Currently, these include at least the rainbow-colored tennis socks, the “XtremeMac TuffWraps” for iPod Nanos, as well as the “with-sense-of-style” iPod cases by Kate Spade.

Sony got the point right from the beginning. It asked various famous artists and fashion designers, including Jeremy Scott, Goyard, Fendi, Adidas Respect Me, Miu Miu, Emilio Pucci, Eley Kishimoto, and Maharishi, to design their own version of the PSP case. These exclusive cases are sold at a Parisian design store Colette. About the Miu Miu case, they write:

“The Miu Miu PSP case is very glam and rock'n'roll. Vintage looking, with its worn patented black, brown or bright red leather, it can be worn on your shoulder like a minimalist bag. Perfectly suited for a shopping afternoon with music in your ears, it wraps the console, games and UMDs in a small zipped pocket. A few buttons can be pinned on the front to give it a jolly rock and funk look. Miu Miu saw it right. The brand's fanatics and vintage lovers will kill for it. Colors: brown, sharp red. 275 EUR.”

Work inspires work. Seeing the fashion cases at Colette had just the expected effect on me: I decided to craft my own version of the Miu Miu case. Just for fun.

At the Marche de Vanves I bought a nice&soft vintage leather purse, which is perfectly sized to be a PSP case. I also bought some old pins, which are actually some kind of ads (from the 50s-60s?). One has a woman’s figure with a text “Pruidam”. The other apparently sells some kind of paint. It says “JOP Color Pulverisateur.” Back home I glued these pins on the case and added some Barbie shoes on the strap. I thinglinked it with the code 445B88C5.

Now, I’m going to send this case traveling. First reason: I'm interested in how the history of objects could be documented when things move from one user to another. Second reason: I'm simply exploring the uses of thinglinks. So, If you a) would like to host this PHP case for some time (and maybe design it a bit more) and b) you are willing to document a couple of moments of its life on your blog or on flickr, please, e-mail me!!

In referring to this post, please use: thing:445B88C5.

What is a thinglink?

I'm writing some text to the thinglink.org site. Here is the first formulation of 'what is a thinglink'. Please, feel free to comment!

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A thinglink is a free unique identifier that anybody can use for making the finding and recommendation of particular things easier in the Internet.

A thinglink identifier is based on the idea that many of the things we use in our daily life are quite particular. Perhaps we know their origin (who has made them, when and how) and something about their history or previous use (like with furniture and cars). Some things have more meaning to us than others.

The particularity of things (objects, artifacts) becomes visible in the ways we communicate about them. Every day we tell stories about the things that we have, or the things that we desire. We evaluate and compare products on the market. We share photos of objects that we find interesting or curious. Some things we want to recommend to other people. All this we do, to a greater extent, online.

The ability to find and to refer to a specific thing is typically based on a system of identification. Whereas people are identified with a name and a personal identification number, web pages have urls, and commercial products have unique product codes. There are however lots of things that fall outside these categories. These include most of the non-mass manufactured items, such as works of art, design. Without a unique identifier, finding and recommending these things in the Internet is difficult.

Thinglinks are unique, 8-digit identifiers that anybody can use for connecting physical or virtual objects to any online information about them. A thinglink on an object is an indication that there is some information about the object online—perhaps a blog post, some flickr photos, a manufacturer’s website, a wikipedia article, or just some quick comments on a discussion site.

The purpose of the thinglink.org is to offer an easy way to learn about products and artifacts in their various contexts of production and use. Small-scale producers such as artists, designers, and crafters can use thinglinks to bring their products to the emerging recommendation-based market in the Internet.

Design Engaged 2005

There is something very special in getting face-to-face with people whose blogs you read. The Design Engaged seminar in Berlin was like a gathering of good old friends although many of the people met each other only for the first time. I was particularly happy for having a chance to talk with Caterina Fake,
Régine Debatty, Anne Galloway, Timo Arnall, Michele Chang, Elizabeth Goodman, and Foe Romeo. So inspiring!!

Speaking at Ultrasound 2005

What would enable a recommendation system for arts, crafts and design? Jyri and I will be talking about this in November 26th at the Ultrasound festival in England.