InSTEDD has built a product called InSTEDD Geochat, which is a service combining SMS, Twitter and email. However it is SMS-only interaction for users, as most don't have browsers. Driving the system is a "semi-structured" API with an extensible pipeline. However the idea of this system is that the participants don't need to be concerned with all the technology behind it, they can just interact with the system using SMS.

Interoperability is an issue, but this is being addressed with an InSTEDD service called Mesh4x. It syncs data from diverse applications, sources and devices. It works via HTTP, files and SMS. It supports open standards, such as FeedSync - an open protocol that describes data formats and algorithms used to version information in a mesh. Interestingly this is a Semantic Web application, with RDF as the default data representation.

The next challenge is using this data for collective action. "Today it takes a lot of coordination to get two organizations working together", said Jezierski. So they have been working on a system called Evolve - described as an RSS Reader for groups by Jezierski. It aims to provide collaborative decision support around streams of information. The service tries to sift through data and identify emerging health-related events. It also has an automatic feature extraction, for data classification and tagging. There is a human input and review module that "allows users to comment, tag, and semantically rank the elements (positive, neutral, or negative)." The overall theme is that it is a mix of machine and human intelligence - the machine can recommend a course of action, but people trigger the actions.

Jezierski has worked in the commercial sector before and he noted that "doing stuff to help people in Cambodia is way harder than running the London Stock Exchange". He said for example that for Twitter to reach wide adoption in these places, much work needs to be done to enable it. In particular he thinks a "better shared language" for technologies is needed for third world work - much in the same way that web 2.0 evolved a specific language in the tech world (tagging, user-generated content, etc).

The InSTEDD Innovation Lab is another project. It's a "socio-technical" lab in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and mixes InSTEDD's own team with various other organizations, to work on technologies that help society.

Overall it's clear that InSTEDD is doing some great work to bring collaborative software and systems into countries that need it the most - for disaster prevention and recovery, healthcare, and other essential needs.

Regarding sensors, these devices can be editors according to Bilton. For example if your phone has GPS, then your location can influence what content you see. Or if you're in your car, your phone could sense that and so NYT could deliver the news to you in audio. It can also change the way NYT does reporting - for example sensors that pick up noise activity could alert reporters to noise problems in NYC (a common problem in that city).

Bilton said that NYT has also been experimenting with semacodes, bar codes in the newspaper - although he noted that it has issues, such as it not being understandable for many mainstream people. There are also e-ink and other interactive concepts being tested (example below).

CustomTimes interactive newspaper box, photo from NickBilton.com

Bilton then showed how if NYT was being 'consumed' in the living room, they can introduce much more video and use sensor metadata to add to the experience (for example showing content based on location). He also asked the question: why doesn't my couch have an API? If NYT knew more about the people in the room, how close they are to the TV, etc, then NYT could customize the user interface and content even further.

He wrapped up by addressing the so-called death of the newspaper. Bilton argued that "paper is just a device". He noted that the next generation will be used to accessing content immediately - there will be flexible displays, full immersive video and graphical experiences, more user-generated content. All of these things are just ways of storytelling, he said.

Based on this fascinating presentation, we can be sure that newspapers - at least ones with enough money to do this type of research - are far from dead if they evolve with and adapt quickly to technology. NYT is certainly one of the leaders in using technology in news reporting, so it appears to be well positioned.

Disclosure: RWW has a syndication relationship with NYT.

Another example is Bag Borrow or Steal, a "Netflix for handbags" where you can rent designer handbags and accessories. The site was created after the founders asked themselves the following questions:

"Why should women have to endure the emotional and financial sacrifices that accompany the endless search for the "right" accessory for every event, wedding, and dinner party? Why should celebrities, fashion editors, and socialites be the only ones allowed to borrow fashion accessories? Why not give everyone access to the perfect accoutrement for every occasion?"

So these sites are examples of the trend of objects as services, which comes about due to objects being able to be tracked and have their status communicated. Kuniavsky said that this represents a "profound shift in our relationships with everyday objects" - how they're designed, consumed, and so on. One example is that if an object is being shared, it can't be personalized. One other issue is that the replacement cycle for shared services tends to be long - which Kuniavsky said may hamper innovation. He used the example of phone companies that used to provide consumers with big bulky phones, to limit maintenance costs and make them last longer. He thinks however that open standards and competing services is an answer to this, as it forces companies to innovate.

Overall, Kuniavsky argued that objects are moving away from an ownership model to a subscription model. The cars and handbags examples above are perhaps an indicator of many other objects becoming services.