The Internet of Things: Spimes and Blogjets

I mentioned the Internet of Things yesterday at the very end of my session as an example of newish stuff I'm following--part of the dumpster diving I do to spot trends. And as I had no time to describe or explain, here's links to the two pieces that will make all clear to you about the Internet of Things. And if not clear, I assure you, your little gray cells will be given a workout.

Bruce Sterling, the science-fiction writer, coined the term "spime" (SPace and tIME) and Julian Bleeker, of the University of Southern California's Annenburg Center for Communication, coined the term "blogjet".

They are similar concepts...Bleeker says Sterling's spime is a more sci-fi-ish object. Here's his description of the Internet of Things from his paper [pdf] "A Manifesto for Networked Objects--Co-habiting with Pigeons, Arphids and Aibos in the Internet of Things": "The Internet of Things has evolved into a nascent conceptual framework for understanding how physical objects, once networked and imbued with informatic capabilities will occupy space and will occupy themselves in a world where things were once quite passive."

Sterling's paper is actually a transcript of a talk he gave recently at eTech 2006: "Spimes are manufactured objects whose informational support is so overwhelmingly extensive and rich that they are regarded as material instantiations of an immaterial system. Spimes begin and end as data. They're virtual objects first and actual objects second."

This stuff is what Web 2.0 is really about...