Alvin Toffler's Prosumer is the new Maker?

In his latest book "Revolutionary Wealth", Alvin Toffler and his wife, revisit the concept of the "prosumer", the producer and consumer, introduced in one of his previous books "The Third Wave". This prosumer is not to be mixed-up with the "professional consumer", the category invented by marketers sitting between the consumer and the professional.
The prosumer in Toffler's world is:

One who create goods, services or experiences for his own satisfaction, rather than for sale or exchange.

And:

...the ability to do more for oneself and one's family, while in fact withdrawing, at least partially, from the marketplace. In that sense they are the opposite of consumerism.

The prosumer acquires technology as an investment not as a consumption. He makes his own movies, foto albums, books. This trend matches with the current rise of "makers" and "crafters" fairs and magazines, with the rise of the "benders", the "tweakers", the "tuners" and the "hackers". There is clearly a shift from passive mass consumption towards a push for customisation, individualisation and reappropriation. Today's prosumer demands unlimited access to content as raw material for his own creations and opposes fiercely against Digital Rights Management and copy protection.

How much of all this is facilitated by technology? Did access to the Internet, the social web, accelerate this trend by disseminating knowledge and experience?

How will the prosumer influence the products of tomorrow? Does this equates to modules, components and DIY kits? Is crowdsourcing the way to open up product development to the prosumer? Is rapid prototyping the final step in setting free the maker in all of us. Welcome to the future.

Bikes, Batteries and Babes

When visting a local bicycle store to check out some of the latest models, I was surprised by the trend of battery driven rear lights. What happened to the good old trusted dynamo? And if bikes come with a dynamo, why not use it to drive the rear lights as well? The shop owner tried to come up with some explanations but none of them made a lot of sense. The recommended batteries for these lights are non rechargeables. Rechargeables don't last long enough between charges to be practical in use. Just imagine the waste! And I thought biking was good for the planet! Luckily my eye caught this nifty product display from Reelight in the shop. This Danish company offers a front/rear wheel kit driven by induction (requires two strong magnets per wheel). The model I bought comes with an integrated capacitor so lights continue to blink when you stop pedaling at crossroads etc... Once installed, no more worries about batteries and I feel the resistance to be much lower than with a dynamo. Added benefit: where my old trusted dynamo skipped often when it rained, the Reelight, because of its contactless power generation, operates without a glitch. Warmly recommended. So why do you need babes in this story?

RIP DAB?

According to this story on The Register, Germany will end Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) next year. Digital terrestrial radio is currently available via different standards: HD Radio in the United States, Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) in Europe, Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM), a digitized European AM standard, and Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) in South Korea.

Some interesting quotes:

Part of the problem is that analogue FM never went away and most people didn't seem to care for the clear digital-quality sound, and were left nonplussed by such benefits as easy tuning and message displays with song names and titles.

Hmmm, where did we hear this one before? SACD and DVD-Audio anyone? And when is good, good enough? Contrary to popular belief, DAB can sound worse than a good analogue FM signal. Depending on the available spectrum, some broadcasters use low bit rate transmissions that sound like low grade MP3's with all the dynamics gone.

DAB is struggling almost everywhere in Europe. The standard never really succeeded in Europe except in Denmark and the UK, where this year the upgraded DAB+ format will be launched (including podcast services).

Experts believe Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) and DVB-T have surpassed DAB technically.

Maybe Internet streaming and narrowcasting substituted the broadcasting of DAB? Why sticking to OTA (Over The Air) when your wire line home broadband can get you the same stuff? Digital Media Adapters (DMA) provide you with a lot more additional features than a DAB radio, often at a cheaper price. And if you just want plain vanilla music, FM is still around. Will analogue radio go the same way as analogue broadcast TV? Will regulators revive DAB by forcing analogue out of the air? Or was DAB the solution to a problem that did not exist?

Interesting fact DAB+ is not backwards-compatible and ordinary DAB receivers cannot receive DAB+ broadcasts. So those in UK and Denmark will have to buy new receivers if they want to benefit from the new and more efficient codec.

UPDATE 25th of February 2008: I bumped into this article on madcomments.co.uk. Apparently there are some issues in the UK as well. Interesting quote from the article:

... internet radio accounts for just fewer than two per cent of all radio listening at the moment.

HDTV putting the cart before the horse

On November 12-13th 2007, Understanding and Solutions, a UK based industry analyst, organised in Barcelona a conference to look at the state of High Definition in Europe. You can read more on it on watchmojo.com.

Let me quote some of the more interesting statements by the major stakeholders in HDTV in Europe.

...countries like France and the UK still only have around 10-12 channels, none of which have enough HD content available to provide original programming 24 hours a day.

Content is king but not for HD. There are a lot of HD Ready sets out there but most people don't even realise that they're watching upconverted SD content. As we can learn from these quotes:

The rapid transition to HD Ready flat screen TVs in Europe is creating a ‘content gap’ that European broadcasters in most territories will struggle to fill, leaving a pent-up demand for other sources of high definition video entertainment

Now unfortunately the on-going battle between the two competing HD disc standards does not help here either. Costs to produce for this format is quite high for independent content creators, leave alone, the public broascasters.

I remember attending some five years ago a conference sponsored by the European Commission that issued warnings on this content gap. Unfortunately, a lot of cars are sold now but we'll have to wait for the roads to drive them on. Don't tell me they did not know this was coming.

The confusing array of logos facing a TV buyer is a key issue (one speaker had counted 17), as is the widely varying terminology used to describe the new ‘1080p’ flat screen panels

Confusion is an opportunity today. Just walk into any large consumer electronics retailer and try to get unbiased advice. Most of the time, the sales staff don't know what they're talking about and just sell what they're told to sell.
Cable companies are piggybacking on the technology refresh and the confusion to serve you the same content but charge additional fees.

UK: <4% of Sky subscribers take HD services; 4.5% of Virgin subscribers take HD services

France: <2% of CanalSat subscribers take HD

Italy: 1.2% of Sky Italia subscribers

Just have a look at these numbers...

BMW's iDrive on the wrong track

BMW's famous iDrive system has been controversial from its start in 2001. The iDrive is BMW's initiative to consolidate the various controls (navigation, entertainment, climatisation, etc...) into one single interface accessed by one knob with a joystick like function. The idea behind the system is to reduce the visual clutter and distraction in the cockpit. Unfortunately, contrary to the systems objective, it is a case study of a Human Computer Interface (HCI) gone wrong. I had the "pleasure" to discover the system on a BMW 3 series (E90 build year 2006) as it came with the optional navigation system. What I don't understand is that after so many years, the system is still a nightmare to use.


photo source: CNET's article see below for reference.

The whole screen lay-out, navigation and menu structure is so contra-intuitive that you have to play with it before you believe how bad this is. You feel the pain every time you need to tweak a setting or change simple things like a radio station. It is very difficult to remember where the designers burried a function. The 3th generation (from 2007 on) abandons the single controller and adds 6 programmable buttons so users can bypass the system altogether and create shortcuts to functions they use most.

Please BMW, hire some good interface design people and get this sorted out.

Read More:

Driving it, Car interfaces and usability on CNET's Car Tech review June 20, 2007 By Wayne Cunningham.

Jacob Nielsen's frustration with the system.

BMW iDrive 6 years in: The world’s best cockpit controller? BMW Car Club of America, August 28, 2007 by Jonathan B. Spira.

A suit with an extra pair of trousers?

photo source: Ralph lauren Black Label winter 2007 collection.

Unless you go custom made or bespoke it is very difficult to buy a suit with more than one pair of trousers. Trousers are exposed to more wear and tear than the jacket so having an extra pair can extend the lifetime of the suit. In these days of eco awareness, I wonder why nobody is bringing this to the table.

Fermax opens doors

The Fermax Memokey System City 100 Codes is a door opener with a keypad. When we renovated the house, I wanted a system like this so we could grant/revoke access to people (babysitters, cleaning lady) without handing out keys. As an additional benefit, when you lock yourself out without a key, you still can get access. After installation, the electrician explained the system and handed over the documentation. All things set, this worked as it should for 3 months and then this thing happened with halloween. Someone rang at the door while I was changing the diapers of the baby. So nobody answers the door. Suddenly, I hear kids singing in the hallway! Nobody could have opened the door because I was upstairs. So how did they enter? I rushed downstairs and asked how they managed to open the door. One of the kids explained that his older brother followed a course as an electrician and they are trained on these type of access systems. His brother told him that these systems come with factory default codes like "1111". So he tried one of the default codes and entered and started singing with his friends. Imagine my surprise. After reading the documentation, I managed to reset the system and remove the factory defaults. Now, what can we learn from this? Fermax forgets that electricians are busy people and sometimes forget to reset factory defaults creating a potential security risk. Not a good thing for a company selling security related products! Unfortunately, this happens too often. For convenience, manufacturers ship their products with default codes that stay active after installation.

Home Fab - the future is calling

With the recent demo at Wired's NextFest of Desktop Factory's 3D printer we're one step closer to the popularisation of this promising technology. Rapid prototyping is already in use by the military to save on logistics costs. Spare parts are not shipped to the battlefield but created in situ in a Mobile Parts Hospital. And in real M*A*S*H spirit, battlefield or civilian casualties can benefit from the technology as well (Rapid prototyping for Baghdad). These devices can print out customised prosthesis, skull and dental implants. With Desktop Factory's printer announcing the availability of this technology to a wider group of designers and "makers" we can only dream of the opportunities. I can't wait to pick-up my 3D print out at my local copy shop. Lost a bolt from your IKEA assembly kit? Go to the website, identify the part and print it out at your local shop.

Creative Gigaworks T20 collects dust

Strange design decision from Creative to put the bass reflex port at the top of this speaker.



There is no dust cover so the speaker collects dust through a top mounted opening. I understand it is difficult to allocate space for the bass port in a slim speaker but this is not a good compromise. I would recommend a different design where the bass port is on the front/back/side/bottom of the speaker. To make sure the right length is achieved, Creative could use a spiral design to roll up the port in the cabinet or at least provide an acoustic neutral dust cover with the product.

Pencil with a manual

My default writing/drawing equipment is this mechanical Staedtler pencil. I was quite surprised to learn that this pencil comes with a real manual. The manual explains with nice diagrams how the filling mechanism works and how to activate the pocket protector that actually retracts the sharp lead sleeve for safe storage. Well done.