A Dystopian Digital Experience, Why it Exists, and How to Fix it
I want apps to more or less go away and be replaced by dashboards and apps that control multiple company's functionality. I don't see the sense in having to open up an app just to scan a QR code, look at the weather, play music, etc. Furthermore, the data and the protocols for controlling devices should tie into a layer of abstraction on top of the Web.
So far...the "Internet of Things" is a "dystopia" of proprietary hardware and incompatible, siloed, experiences.
Digital odometers on bikes and the sensors on treadmills should wirelessly communicate with fitness trackers. Music and other media should be easily streamed to car audio systems or home theater systems. Eventually, more homes will be built with automation-ready technology for controlling the lights, fans, climate control, locks, appliances, windows, blinds, etc. and so far that is a dystopia.
Just as the Internet creates a unifying experience between different types of computers with the use of the Internet Protocol (IP system) and the Web unifies digital Web Resources like webpages, audio, video, images, text, CSS, etc....I have been a proponent for some time now, pushing for not only better open platforms for data compatibility (for Science and Semantics, etc.) along with a layer for unifying our Experiences as we use devices...predicting the use cases and features of devices and making open standards for using them...together...
Additionally, similar awesomeness will bleed through in the form of Venues...becoming more contextually relevant for the digital age. Classrooms, stadiums, homes, libraries, conference halls, workplaces...these areas could potentially make use of open standards as a layer on top of the existing Web standards for doing amazing experience based things. Such as...participating in a mobile based game/contest, etc. automatically at a sports event. A little alert pops up on-screen letting you know there is an interactive feature at your event. (tied into Google Now or something, for instance)
And you can probably imagine yourself how this would be used in other places. The point is...right now, currently, apps are reinventing the wheel all the time. And why should we have to search for an app, install it, and add a huge multi-megabyte app to our phone every time we want to participate in a new, experimental "experience" that has been designed.
These experiences are not so completely unique that it doesn't make sense for there to be a very special layer of abstraction on top of the existing Web as a starting point for this stuff.
