Video: PSFK Conference NYC: Kevin Slavin’s “This Platform Called Everyday Life”

Another older one, but love this guy's point of view... thanks PSFK

April 28, 2009

At PSFK Conference NYC, Kevin Slavin gave a captivating presentation on “This Platform Called Everyday Life”, in which he discussed the evolving nature of the objects surrounding us. Kevin, Managing Director and co-founder of Area/Code, explained how pervasive technologies are changing the way we relate to our physical environment and everything in it – from playground balls, to houseplants to sneakers.

Kevin opened his talk with a story about a fascinatingly bizarre woman who had such intense feelings for the Berlin Wall that she married it. Through his talk, Kevin demonstrated how the woman’s relationship with the Wall, while extreme, parallels the relationships we’re developing with the material objects we love, use, play with, and wear. Technologies that give an object an ‘identity’ and make it ’smarter’ (RFID, accelerometers, QR codes, GPS) are breathing artificial life into our favorite unliving things. These technological innovations are, in essence, moving us towards a complete convergence with the objects in our lives… Maybe we are becoming more dependent and defined by our possessions because they are becoming more dependent and defined by us. The talk is eye-opening – watch it in full below.

The Check-out of the Future: Fewer Humans, More Phones [video]

Older 'future video' and article from NCR via Fast Company. Even thought it's nearly a year old, i still love signs to a future of RFID/NFC, internet of things...

National Cash Register is one of those grand old American companies that, come the digital revolution, might have gone the way of the rotary phone. Instead, with a trimmed down name (now NCR), and a ramped up R&D operation, the company is transforming the way we handle our money--or its digital equivalent.
We visited NCR’s "Innovation Center," an expansive high-rise display space filled with next-gen ATMs, kiosks, and self-service systems that will let you do everything from check into a hotel (and find your way to your room), to burn a movie (and redeem the old ones you no longer want.)

We were most taken with the possibilities of using our cellphones to conduct business in all sorts of intriguing new ways. We got the company to demonstrate a few cutting edge applications that may soon appear in a bank or hotel near you.

Bloggers Create Social Network Via Snail Mail

New skool gets old skool... thanks psfk
March 17, 2010

Social networks present a paradox; we utilize them as a utility to keep in touch with everyone, and yet people spend hours everyday interacting on them. It’s clear from this that the commodity being played with is time. Moreover, we are accustomed to immediate and self-gratifying communication. In reaction though, many of us still lament older forms of human interactions. Because in a world where birthday wishes are symbolized by animated gifs and two second decisions about whether to post a comment on Facebook, the sincerity can sometimes feel a little lacking.

This is where the Package Project takes it starting point. The goal is to build a network of interactions by sending creative and colorful packages to other bloggers. They write:

The Package Project is an exchange aimed to connect bloggers around the world and to grow the blogging community even further. It is all about swopping pretty packages and handmade delights. The packaging only makes the exchange more fun so get creative…strings, manila tags and ribbons galore. Each package must be a joy to receive and each time you do receive one…pop out your camera and snap away. This way we all get to share in a bit of your excitement.

By participating, you get to learn about your blogging partner through their creativity as much as their contents. More importantly though, the sense of anticipation between each blogger builds a more meaningful interaction because of the time needed to create the project as well as send/receive. Time, here, is still a commodity, but is it possible to feel a little bit of sincerity reinstated when you know the other person has spent just as much time as you have thinking of them?

Pizza Hut on the go

Pizza Hut has launched an Australian iPhone app to enable mobile ordering of products.

The app features an augmented reality function or ‘GPS Store Finder’, giving iPhone 3Gs users with the ability to find their nearest Pizza Hut store. Users can hold up their iPhone 3Gs, the camera opens and the screen shows what is in front of the user, as well as small tabs highlighting the direction and distance of Pizza Hut locations nearby.


All iPhone users will have fun with the exclusive racing game – a great way to be entertained while waiting for their orders to be delivered.

The app gives customers the ability to order a selection of food including pizza, tuscani pasta, sides, and drinks. Orders can be saved as an ‘ifav’, making it quicker to order in the future.

Pizza Hut’s iPhone app has been specially created for the local market and is based on the popular US version.

The app can be viewed at http://www.pizzahut.com.au/iphone and downloaded from the iTunes store.

Pizza Hut will also launch a new ordering service for a variety of other 3G mobile phones in the near future.

To see a demonstration of the app, go to www.pizzahut.com.au/iphone.

From Inside Retailing March 17

Goldstar Beer: Park Fight Facebook App

Brands trying to generate large numbers of fans on Facebook know it generally involves some serious work over a decent period of time, or in this case (and the much preferred method!), just a very clever idea that has a platform to go viral! This is a new Facebook app for Gold Star Beer (Israel’s #1 Beer), created by McCann Israel where they have created a man vs woman car parking challenge for players recruit friends to help win the battle of supremacy!

You’ve got to park a car perfectly in the fastest possible time to help your genders average parking score! The app has been a massive hit over in Israel, with 200,000 people becoming fans, generating 2.5 million + games in under a week! Check out the Facebook app here! (thanks Nir!)

Oh, women are currently parking in about 53 secs while men are averaging a speedy 42 secs!

Posted from Digital Buzz

Google opens online store

Google will sell the online services of other business software makers in an effort to fill its own product gaps and persuade more companies to rely on applications piped over the Internet.

The online store unveiled late on Tuesday in the US marks another step in Google's crusade to convert the world to "cloud computing".

The term refers to applications that run in Web browsers instead of individual hard drives.


More than 50 software makers have agreed to sell their Internet programs through Google, which will keep 20 per cent of the sales. The prices are expected to range from $US50 ($A54.73) to several hundred dollars per user annually.

Intuit and Concur Technologies are among the best-known software makers in Google's store.

From Insider Retail 11/03/2010

Technology, Game Mechanics And Bridging The Virtual-Actual Divide

Thanks again PSFK for this interesting talk from Jesse Schell of schellgames.com on the intersections of gaming and the real world... the stuff on much real money social games generate, and the insights behind them, is fascinating.

At our New York Conference last year, Kevin Slavin of Area/Code delivered a talk on gaming in everyday life entitled “This Platform called Everyday Life”. Recently we stumbled upon a talk Jesse Schell of schellgames.com (game developer, previously of the Disney Imagineering division) delivered for this year’s DICE summit (Design, Innovate, Communicate Entertain) that elaborates on this concept.

During the talk, Schell talks about how the explosion of the virtual in our lives has driven us to crave more reality in every facet of life; think the continuing proliferation of “reality” TV programming and “authentic” offerings from major brands and corporations (like Starbuck’s London Conduit Street and Seattle 15th Ave. locations). This trend has had an incredible impact on gaming across the last few years, and has allowed for the continuing success of “real”-ish gaming (the Nintendo Wii which translating real activity into interactivity, Guitar Hero and Rock Band which simulates a rock-stardom with “real” instruments), as well as games driven by very real social mechanics (eg. Mafia Wars). Schell concludes his talk with an elaborate example of how foursquare-like game mechanics complete with rewards points and achievements could impact our everyday lives as world the virtual and actual collide; Imagine getting “achievement points” for taking public transit which result in a government tax credit to further incentivize you.

The particulars of Schell’s talk are debatable, but with the explosion of augmented geolocated technology (SPIMEs) such as Dennis Crowley’s Foursquare, Nike’s Plus, and the prolific use of social networking to interface real life interaction, this continued collision of virtual and actual is inevitable. We were particularly struck by the bizarre economics that bridge the virtual/actual divide. Did you know that Farmville earns more money from lead generation (allowing credit card companies to get players to fill in applications) than micro-payments from users?

Watch a video of Schell’s talk below:

Wii Games - E3 2010 - Guitar Hero 5