Our Hyperlocal Future – From Nano To Astro

Wired’s Bruce Sterling has been sent to DC to testify before Congress about passport issues and his meeting started a few thoughts on the importance of local:

I gently opined to the glum congressional committee that sealing borders in a world of location-aware technology is a futile effort doomed to an ignominious defeat. Yes sir, just like digital rights management!

Too bad none of the assembled officials could remember digital rights management. But that makes sense. Another 10 years and nobody will remember passports, either. I leaned into the microphone to deliver the money line. “Hyperlocality is transforming our lives at every scale: bodyware, roomware, streetware, cityware, nationware, and global ware. From nano to astro!”

You see, the difference between the old-fashioned semantic Web and the new hyperlocal Web — that’s hyper as in linked, and local as in location — is that the databases of the new Web are stuffed with geographic coordinates. Real positions. Real distances. So the bodyware I carry in my pockets and travel bag broadcasts its location to any device within earshot. (Of course, the RFID chips embedded in everything help the manufacturer get it out the door, but I programmed my own tags so I can’t lose anything.) Roomware — that’s houseware to you troglodytes who still live in houses — is the stuff that runs a hotel room. You know, the remotes that control temperature and unlock the liquor cabinet, plus the window overlay that displays the weather forecast and traffic conditions. Streetware is my mobile’s navigator, plus social tags, ad filters, and all those black-and-white barcode blotches painted on walls like graffiti. Cityware is the next scale up. That’s how the local government monitors traffic, chases down leaky water mains, and keeps tourists on the straight and narrow. Stateware, nationware, globalware — you get the idea.
Ever since the birth of the Internet, there’s been a conflict between networks and hierarchies. The hyperlocal Web takes that struggle to the streets, literally.

Dispatches From the Hyperlocal Future:

(Apologies to Wired for such a long extract)