Findable Footwear

Apparently, 2007 is poised to be the year of findable footwear.

Compass Global Sneakers

Choices include Compass Global Sneakers by Isaac Daniel and the Xplorer by GTXC. Parent to child: "Did you remember to plug in your shoes?"

Strange Connections

Tony Byrne has graciously posted a polar bear third edition excerpt about enterprise information architecture on CMSWatch.

Judging by Andy King's review, Information Foraging Theory by Peter Pirolli promises to be challenging yet rewarding.

February 6, 2007 ( 2:41 PM) |
Michael (February 10, 2007)

Mr Morville,
I extremely admire your work and I'm honoured to have the possibility to comment here.
About this object the problem you pointed out ironically is extremely valid and I think it will be the reason why these shoes won't just be marketable in the near future.

Unless the demand of wireless recharging pads will increase of course.

I have stumbled upon Nokia Smart2Go today, a mapping and navigation application that Nokia will release for free, it could work on its own offline (if you have downladed the maps before) or it could use your smartphone's connection to download maps you request by address.
The app could even interoperate with your smartphone's GPS receiver to locate the user of course.

Yes, you still have to own a Symbian or Windows Mobile smartphone obviously,with a flat rate UMTS connection, or an external memory card,which would be the cheaper option.

What do you think about this service? Could it help spread personal navigation devices amongst the general public, in your opinion?

Peter Morville (February 12, 2007)

Thanks for your comment Michael. I agree that the shoes are unlikely to gain much traction and that our mobile phones are the first frontier for location-based services...then watches, then implants :-)