From Pixels to Plastic
Here’s the business angle.
The key bit is that people are prepared to pay for bits of plastic. The business model is built-in. You can see what you’re buying, with plastic.
I’ve been talking with toy inventors recently. They call this factor shelf-demonstrability. When it’s on the shelf, you can tell what it does, what experience or activity is wraps up. Incidentally, also from toy designers, you should make your product shaped like this [] because they can be more of them on the shelf.
Now let’s pretend we were trying to sell instant messaging, for cash money.
It feels to me an easier sell to say “see when your friends are around for you to talk to” than “subscribe to a system of the possibility of talking”. You’re buying a thing rather than the possibility of something (which is what tools are). I think the Availabot is an easier sell.
Of course, instant messaging is free… but services on the web still cost money to the providers. We are going to need to see some things. Plastic is one way to better communicate what’s being bought and sold.