IBM, Nokia, Philips, Motorola, and many others are coming out with wearables. InfoCharms fashion shows are one way for us to use ingenuity instead of television advertising to be able to break through the 'freedom of the press - as long as you own the press' barriers. We haven't raised any outside funding, and have broken even in our first two quarters on sponsorships for the fashion shows. We have no sales or marketing people in the company, and are committed to open source software. If we get marginalized by a large company, then there will be that much less choice, innovation, and incentive for innovative applications of open source developers. As one who has lived in India and seen people die in front of my eyes, I have developed a deep commitment to bringing the Internet to the whole world, including the poorest. Only 3% of the world's population has access to the Internet. Wearables, produced in sufficient quantity, and with a few peripherals like solar powered battery rechargers, are more appropriate for people who don't have electrical outlets, or the money to have a different system at home, work, and in the car. If the wealthy countries will pay extra for fashion (and they do, as Nokia has proven), then the developing world can be subsidized. These are my motivations for doing wearables shows. What are yours in trashing them?
Thad Starner once told me that two uniformed military men on their way to a meeting at Georgia Tech about wearables saw him walk by with his little MicroOptical display on his glasses and said, within earshot, "What the f*ck was that?" People get insulted (beaten up, etc.) every day for being different. Just look at the comment about the 'scary' audience, which in that photo happened to include a fat black person and some Asians. No one commented - I guess Slashdot is one of the few places that joking about people's color, race or weight is still okay. How does this relate to the show? Simple: having wearables associated with fashion reduces the likelihood of 'geek' or 'freak' insults that will be hurled at the first people brave enough to start wearing computers in clubs, offices, shopping, or anywhere. If Slashdot people are willing to vomit all this negativity, just think about the real world. The fear of the new or the outsider has been present throughout history, and our shows may make a positive difference. Any better ideas on how to reduce the stigma of wearables than a show open to over 80 different designers of devices and clothes in two shows? I'm all ears.
The focus on the poultry inspection system reflects the nitpicking by chickens on these threads. It was set up to avoid getting chicken grease on the many paper forms that the US Dept. of Agriculture requires inspectors to fill out. Do you have a problem with that? We hired a professional fashion show producer to do the show, and she did not want to have a rubber chicken in the show. The banana was handy, and pretty much everyone outside slashdot understood that it was an inspection system. For what it's worth, the show will be done at each Internet World. If you actually want to understand why, read the book The Experience Economy - all the other stuff, other than the people who mentioned knowing Thad, is off base.
I'm one of the producers of the Unwired World show. After reading these Slashdot comments, I was surprised to see how similar many of them were - in mean-spirited attempt to be clever - to the final episode of Seinfeld, which I saw on television tonight. So many insults and absurd conjectures from people who imagine themselves to be part of something useful. Here are a few facts: InfoCharms' producers arranged the fashion show in order to give recognition to dozens of designers and develops who otherwise would not be able to get credit or attention. We negotiated the booth space, then invited many companies, individuals, and universities to participate. Phone.com, Nokia, Ericsson, and Motorola didn't bother to reply. Some places, like MIT, Carnegie-Mellon, Georgia Tech, and the University of Rochester did reply, and were given free booth space to explain their work.
Slashdot Mirror
IBM, Nokia, Philips, Motorola, and many others are coming out with wearables. InfoCharms fashion shows are one way for us to use ingenuity instead of television advertising to be able to break through the 'freedom of the press - as long as you own the press' barriers. We haven't raised any outside funding, and have broken even in our first two quarters on sponsorships for the fashion shows. We have no sales or marketing people in the company, and are committed to open source software. If we get marginalized by a large company, then there will be that much less choice, innovation, and incentive for innovative applications of open source developers. As one who has lived in India and seen people die in front of my eyes, I have developed a deep commitment to bringing the Internet to the whole world, including the poorest. Only 3% of the world's population has access to the Internet. Wearables, produced in sufficient quantity, and with a few peripherals like solar powered battery rechargers, are more appropriate for people who don't have electrical outlets, or the money to have a different system at home, work, and in the car. If the wealthy countries will pay extra for fashion (and they do, as Nokia has proven), then the developing world can be subsidized. These are my motivations for doing wearables shows. What are yours in trashing them?
Thad Starner once told me that two uniformed military men on their way to a meeting at Georgia Tech about wearables saw him walk by with his little MicroOptical display on his glasses and said, within earshot, "What the f*ck was that?" People get insulted (beaten up, etc.) every day for being different. Just look at the comment about the 'scary' audience, which in that photo happened to include a fat black person and some Asians. No one commented - I guess Slashdot is one of the few places that joking about people's color, race or weight is still okay. How does this relate to the show? Simple: having wearables associated with fashion reduces the likelihood of 'geek' or 'freak' insults that will be hurled at the first people brave enough to start wearing computers in clubs, offices, shopping, or anywhere. If Slashdot people are willing to vomit all this negativity, just think about the real world. The fear of the new or the outsider has been present throughout history, and our shows may make a positive difference. Any better ideas on how to reduce the stigma of wearables than a show open to over 80 different designers of devices and clothes in two shows? I'm all ears.
The focus on the poultry inspection system reflects the nitpicking by chickens on these threads. It was set up to avoid getting chicken grease on the many paper forms that the US Dept. of Agriculture requires inspectors to fill out. Do you have a problem with that? We hired a professional fashion show producer to do the show, and she did not want to have a rubber chicken in the show. The banana was handy, and pretty much everyone outside slashdot understood that it was an inspection system. For what it's worth, the show will be done at each Internet World. If you actually want to understand why, read the book The Experience Economy - all the other stuff, other than the people who mentioned knowing Thad, is off base.
I'm one of the producers of the Unwired World show. After reading these Slashdot comments, I was surprised to see how similar many of them were - in mean-spirited attempt to be clever - to the final episode of Seinfeld, which I saw on television tonight. So many insults and absurd conjectures from people who imagine themselves to be part of something useful. Here are a few facts: InfoCharms' producers arranged the fashion show in order to give recognition to dozens of designers and develops who otherwise would not be able to get credit or attention. We negotiated the booth space, then invited many companies, individuals, and universities to participate. Phone.com, Nokia, Ericsson, and Motorola didn't bother to reply. Some places, like MIT, Carnegie-Mellon, Georgia Tech, and the University of Rochester did reply, and were given free booth space to explain their work.