What happens when our products start talking back? Andrew Zolty of BREAKFAST will sit with Garrick Schmitt (Razorfish), Usman Haque (Pachube.com & Haque Design + Research),  Shiv Singh (PepsiCo Beverages), and Allison Mooney (MobileBehavior) at their Web 2.0 Expo session to discuss this somewhat recent phenomenon we’re  experiencing with things we own.

By using radio frequency identification (RFID), near field communications (NFC), electronic product codes (EPC) and Twitter and its API, developers and product designers are creating new interactions and relationships between people and objects. For example, there’s  BakerTweet, a system Zolty worked on, which allows bakers to dynamically send out tweets to customers alerting them when a fresh batch of buns have emerged from the oven. And another project of his, Precious - the bike with a brain, has given a new dimension to cycling.

Zolty recently answered some questions we had about his session, Web 3.0 (the Internet of Things), and the future of how we interact with talking lifeless objects. (Come see his session by registering now with 25% discount code webny10scm4 today.)

Kaitlin: The first thing I noticed in your session’s description was the phrase “Web 3.0,” mainly because I’m the Web 2.0 Expo community manager, and I’m concerned whether I should upgrade my title. How do you define Web 3.0 and have we fully advanced to that stage yet?

Zolty: I’ve spent a lot of time recently speaking to people about trying to de-techify tech in hope of allowing a wider audience to understand the nuances of what we talk about. With this in mind allow me to try to explain the Web via chapters rather than versions.

Chapter 1 – Knowledge In the beginning, our world was changed when we were given access to massive amounts of information that was not even close to being available just a few years prior.

Chapter 2 – Sharing Our new world began to evolve, and with it we saw the power in a person’s ability to share what was going on around them almost immediately. Family and friends were now able to keep up to date with each others’ lives to the minute, news was coming faster and was packaged with first-hand stories from the people at the scene, and new relationships were made by finding tiny connections that were almost impossible to come across before.

Chapter 3 - Autonomy Until now, this new world has relied heavily upon people being the sole “sensors” reporting back to the world. People had to submit the information about a storm coming, about the long line to buy a new gadget, or if the office coffee supply was running low and it was time to go place an order. This new chapter we’re entering is about digital sensors, and their ability to create efficiency. When our coffee station has the ability to know the supplies are running low, it can make the order itself, and expedite the shipping as necessary depending on how fast all that coffee is getting sucked down.

All this said, there will be another chapter soon, probably some Terminator stuff. Might be best to keep any numbers out of your title if possible.

Kaitlin: Products aren’t just talking back to us, they’re doing so in a very human manner. In the case of Precious, the bike with a brain your company designed, we’re connecting with a personality, not just a frame with gears and wheels. Are we going to get to the point where we’re anthropomorphizing everything to make it more pleasant to deal with? Am I going to eventually feel empathy for my garbage disposal?

Zolty: Precious joins a plethora of other inanimate objects that are talking online in a human-ish way, and each seems to get a little better at it. Something we took very seriously with Precious was his ability to be interesting, have a range of emotion, and to update appropriately in the same way a person might. When it comes down to it, it’s all about whether the object has found a way to be be worth listening to. If your garbage disposal was given the quick-wittiness of Conan O’Brien, and had the ability to recognize and comment on whatever you were shoving in his mouth, it wouldn’t surprise me that you might empathize with him the next time you pour some rotten milk down his throat.

Kaitlin: How can marketers use all this data we’re receiving from human-product interaction to their advantage? How’s my shopping experience at the mall or grocery store going to change?

Zolty: It’s all about making life easier. Rather than putting another sign in front of someone, marketers need to focus on making someone’s day a little better/easier. What is exciting us at BREAKFAST right now is the potential for brick and mortar stores to start utilizing the tools that give their own online stores advantages. All stores should be able to get me an item as long as it exists somewhere in their network, regardless of whether they actually have it in their local inventory. Your grocery store should be helping you through the store by recommending what pairs well with what you’re putting in your cart, and giving on the spot discounts on those items. That seems a little better than trying to get you to buy 2 get 1 free on salmon flavored salsa.

Kaitlin: With so much data coming in from sensors, how are companies scaling analytics systems to make sense of it all and convert data to knowledge and/or wisdom?

Zolty: There is a massive amount of money being put into the infrastructure to automate and track an endless list of everyday objects and occurrences, but we won’t know for some time how well it will all play out. The ability for all these companies to work together is what’s going to be the key. My KitchenAid mixer is going to need to be able to talk to my GE oven so that it knows when to pre-heat efficiently to make my cookies perfect. The same rules will apply to security, banks, etc. None of it will work unless they can all speak the same language. If they don’t, the analytics will be disappointing regardless.

Kaitlin: In the not so distant future, we might have such conveniences as refrigerators keeping track of grocery preferences by scanning the RFID tags on products and then ordering replacements when the item hits the recycling bin. What’s one convenience you’d like added to your life using these interactive technologies (like RFID or NFC) that doesn’t currently exist (or doesn’t yet on a wide scale)?

Zolty: Our phones need to become the only thing in our pockets. It’s quite an obvious answer, but it’s time to say goodbye to wallets and keys. Thanks to a lot of movement in the past couple of months, it looks like we’re not so far away.

Kaitlin: Although RFID makes life a lot easier for producers and retailers (Walmart, for example), many consumer and civil liberties groups are concerned the tags will threaten privacy and lead us into an Orwellian society where every move we make is tracked and analyzed. One conspiracy theory I read was that in the future, divorces could involve one party seeking a subpoena for RFID logs to prove that their spouse had been secretly checking into hotels or heading to strip clubs. Should we be concerned that these products and devices that talk back are also possible Big Brothers?

Zolty: Privacy is and will be the largest topic of all things digital for many years to come. There is plenty of danger than can come of all this advancement, and it’s in the hands of a lot of big companies to do right by us all. This said, 99% of the time the solution is an “off” button. We just have to make sure they’re being put in.

Kaitlin: Since this panel deals with the future of the web and technology, I’m curious to know how you see the future “Internet of Things” eventually turning out. Are we looking more like Blade Runner in how we interact with objects that have personalities (like replicants) or will it be rosier like Star Trek TNG’s holodecks?

Zolty: When you call up one of those customer service lines and hear “Are you having a problem with your device, please say ‘Yes’ or ‘No,’” don’t you want to chuck your phone agains the wall? It’s both frustrating and makes you feel like a complete fool in front of whoever is around you. Why can’t I just hit the ol’ “1” button?

People don’t love dealing with humanized things, and it’ll be a long time before objects with personalities will have the finesse to be enjoyable to deal with. Thus, I think we’ll sooner end up in a world of telekinesis based devices that don’t require us to have to deal with a robot’s attitude, or lack there of.

To answer your question though, I think WALL-E got it best.

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Kaitlin Pike is the Community Manager of Web 2.0 Expo. She can be reached @w2e or @kcpike.

Register here with code webny10scm4 to save 25% on Web 2.0 Expo conference passes.

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