Poken is offering a physical networking platform, with physical, RFID-based objects that plug into a PC via USB (where have we heard that before?)
A Poken is a connected business card, when you meet people you want to connect to, you touch their ‘poken’ and get added to their Open Social network.
Just tap your poken to theirs, activating Poken’s wireless technology. The poken “high-four” lets you share your online social network profile(s) instantly. At any computer with web access the poken hand pulls out of the body, revealing a USB connector. Insert the poken USB connector into the computer’s USB port to upload your new contacts to the Poken web database.
They have a few interactions that are intended to deal with different social situations, I wonder how they came up with these ‘modes’:
“If you simply touch your poken to another poken without having pressed the palm button, your “Normal” identity is shared. ‘Discreet’ mode requires a double- click of the poken palm. This mode allows you to poken without actually sharing your profile, if you have selected the ‘Ghost’ option or to share a limited profile of your choosing. To be as discreet as possible there is no visible lighting effect. You can, however, check for a little green light that will afterwards flash inside the poken by removing the poken body from the hand. A lengthy press (more than two seconds) of the palm button of your poken will make the hand glow different colors for ten (10) seconds.”
So they are attempting to create culture around the product, of ‘high fours’, ‘light shows’ and discreet ‘ghosting’. But behaviours in social life are so sensitive and context dependent—particularly around the exchange of contact information—it’s hard to see how they will be able to influence them through software or hardware. On the other hand, these limited behaviours might just take off like Tamagotchi or Lighter.
While it’s good that they are taking an open approach to managing contacts (using Open Social and an API), where they can plug into almost any other social network platform, the physical interface presents much harder problems. There is an enormous effort to reach the critical point at which cluster effects can take place, and many users will feel the full brunt of the ‘first fax machine’ problem.
We are currently spoilt by abundant network connectivity, compressing time and space. But the traditional limitations of the physical world such as scarcity and distance affect all physically situated interfaces, and design approaches that deal with these limitations will increasingly be needed.
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4 Comments
Poken is not exactly a RFID-based product. In fact, to operate RFID-based products need a reader, which for both the electrical consumptions and dimensions was suitable for Poken. Hence people at Poken developed their own technology, which is conceptually similar to RFID, but it is not the same (they don’t use the RFID word to describe this technology in their website). There is no reader with Poken. Both devices can read and write and both devices, differently from RFID tags, require a battery.
Couldn’t the poken be a conspiracy from a government from any country? Here in the Netherlands the government is willing to let the people accept the rfid-chips in their passports. Soon they will appear in the train and bus tickets too.
But there are rumors about this chip being hacked. Do you know more about it?
Andrea: For us the technology distinctions are overshadowed by the fact that it acts like an RFID/near-field interaction, even if the technology is slightly different.
Jens: There are many technologies that can be used for surveillance, and RFID certainly has the potential. However I’m not sure that a consumer product like Poken is any more scary than having a mobile phone or an Oyster Card.
The recent, highly publicised hacking of Mifare encryption shows that the technology is not infallible.
Hi Timo, Poken and mynameise are not RFID although interesting new on=off type of tools. We built an RFID thing around similar ideas of connecting people although not something that’s very easy to distribute unlike the other two. http://blog.roomwareproject.org/2008/10/06/social-rfid-installation-for-media-plaza/