Julian finally released the manifesto about the future of artifacts and the Internet of Things. It's called A Manifesto for Networked Objects — Cohabiting with Pigeons, Arphids and Aibos in the Internet of Things. And of course the short title is "Why Things Matter" which nicely expressed the fact they - hey - in the future things will matter. The document elaborates on the idea of the blogject topic, answering to two questions: first, why would objects want to just blog? Second, why would I care if objects "blog"? It presents the idea of objects that blog, which characteristics they would have (traces, history, agency), which protozoic blogjects we've already seen (Aibo blog, the pigeon blogger...), what's at stakes and why do people envisionned that concept. My favorite part is certainly the end:

Forget about the Internet of Things as Web 2.0 and networked Barcaloungers. I want to know how to make the Internet of Things into a platform for World 2.0. How can the Internet of Things become a framework for creating more habitable worlds, rather than a technical framework for a television talking to my refrigerator? Now that we've shown that the Internet can become a place where social formations can accrete and where worldly change has at least a hint of possibility, what can we do to move that possibility out into the worlds in which we all have to live?

Why do I blog this? this is connected to the blogject thoughts I already discussed here, especially with regards to the workshop we had before lift06. The document also deals with issues very close to my current reseach (for instance when it's related to space/place and behavior).