Johnny Apple Node, RE: Passive Stumbling and Information Awareness

“If access to information clearly defines the level of cultural development within local communities, the awareness if such information is visibly inexistent in most non centric regions, costumed not to have access to such, citizens forsaken themselves from the habits of information consumption and limit their information to whatever commercial channels are tangible and effortless, caring not for the quantity nor quality.

If by publishing the local digital information channels among local communities, we activate the awareness of local possibilities to access and create new and context relevant information, the level of both local knowledge generation and information flow will increase, therefor enhancing life quality. As Don Pedro Ramirez would say ‘The more information sources you have, the more you can create. If you have no new information, you cannot be able to create.’“ (neverwonderland: Orb - Republished)

Yes, I must agree that ad-hoc sensor nets accomplish many a goal. A part from what it is they sense, the A-H SN’s platform is an equalizer.

How so…?

On the premise that the more sensors you have the greater the resolution of your net — the cheaper your sensors must become — economies of scale.

So what…?

Well, that makes for more increased availability and thus increased likely-hood the sensor can be copied and used by those with lesser resources.

True– the governments, the corporations and the like will have first access to the most complex of these sensors regardless of the cost of R&D…already billions are being spent in this pursuit –but let us be careful not to forget the plethora of cheap sensors that can be made today, right now…like the orb

Yet, the beauty of this technology is that it can be put in service by a large number of people…each donating very little, yet each profiting greatly (any Foneros in the crowd?).

This is the ad-hoc model, be it communication nodes, cheap networked cameras, access-points, police/government vehicle sniffers or orbs down in the trading districts of New York.

As a quote from one of my favorite movies puts it:

“Snoop unto them…As they’d snoop unto us.”

Though I do not advocate snooping, I merely wish to make a point about the equality we all have in deploying an ad-hoc sensor net of (x) capability.

I have for some time been fascinated by the implications of the sensor net…specifically the ad-hoc variant. I muse at what such nets could do to equalize problems like Net Neutrality. Where I connect to john -> jack -> sue -> albert -> betty for the data…and not TimeWarner.

I recently ’stumbled’ onto a Google engEDU video that I think would be interesting to the data-correlation side of the sensor net…since most of the sensors in a net, the orb included, need to be location-aware:

Spatial Query Processing Utilizing Voronoi Diagrams

That said, I would love to have a flashing context-aware orb in my midst spilling precious informatics from its radial goodness…yet I would be more impressed by a super cheap version, made not to draw attention to its self –rather made to be hardy, handy, stealthy, easily deployable and yet with a simple design.

I want to play Johnny Apple Node and I know I am not alone.

Nonetheless, I applaud this effort…I would be interested in seeing an open estimate of the R&D costs/specific approaches involved.

Bring on the orbs!

>||;]

(regarding the video:: yes, think spatial data on maps…but don’t stop there, the map is just a data-set)