Social Machines: How to Develop Connected Products That Change Customers Lives

"Peter Semmelhack is a pioneer in the open source hardware space and the Internet of Things. By empowering more people to create and modify social machines in increasingly sophisticated ways, he is helping to democratize innovation." —Eric von Hippel , economist and professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management The next stage of interaction between ourselves and our environment is upon us. In the very near future, every great new product will be social—your shoes, your car, your bicycle, your home appliances—all collecting data and sharing it with you, whenever and wherever you need it. Social Machines is the first book for businesspeople, marketers, product developers, and technologists, explaining how this trend will change our world, how your business will benefit, and how to create connected products that customers love. Across every major industry, digital technology is being "baked into" the most unlikely new products, even wheelchairs. Companies like Ford, Pepsi, Verizon, and Procter & Gamble are using these "social machines" to reach new markets, improve customer experience, and increase revenues.In order for your business to stay competitive, you must learn how to join the "Internet of Things." Social Machines lays the foundation for powerful new business models that will not only change the way you reach consumers, but also the way we live.

Acknowledgments ix Part I Social Machines: An Overview 1 Chapter 1 Introduction 3 Chapter 2 A Social Internet of Things 11 Chapter 3 Why Social Networks Must Evolve 21 Everything Will Get Connected 23 Everything Will Get Smarter 29 Everything Will Get Social 30 We’re Running Out of Humans! 33 Chapter 4 Social Machines and the Future of Humankind 35 Part II Every Product Is a Platform: Rethinking Product Design in the Age of Connectedness 47 Chapter 5 Overview 49 Chapter 6 A Brief History of Abstraction 53 Chapter 7 Social Product Design 65 Connected versus Social 68 Example 1—The Weather Station 73 Example 2—Wheelchairs and Hand Sanitizers 80 Example 3—The Social Bicycle 84 Chapter 8 Avatars and the Social Seven: Unique Characteristics of Social Machines 99 The Social Seven—Overview 102 The Social Seven—Details 105 Chapter 9 Spheres of Use, or Why Your New Product Should Do Things You Never Envisioned 117 Part III The Business of Social Machines 121 Chapter 10 Introduction 123 People Sharing Things 125 Things Sharing Data 130 Chapter 11 How to Build a Business Using Social Machines 137 Retrofit Model 139 Built–in Model 142 Chapter 12 My Customer’s Customer Is My Customer: The Beauty of a Social Value Chain 149 Chapter 13 The Art of Social Pricing 153 Part IV Getting Started 157 Chapter 14 Design Requirements: What Does It Take to Design and Build a Social Machine? 159 But First, a Quick Story. . . 161 How Do I Make My Product Social? 167 Retrofi t Model 183 Built–in Model 185 Chapter 15 Getting There from Here 189 Part V Scenarios 195 Chapter 16 Smart Home 197 Chapter 17 Retail 203 Chapter 18 Transportation 211 Chapter 19 Finance 217 Chapter 20 Health and Wellness 223 Part VI Resources 229 Index 235

Peter Semmelhack is the founder and CEO of Bug Labs, developer of an award-winning open source consumer electronics and web services platform, recently featured in MoMA's "Talk to Me" exhibit. As a founding member of the rapidly growing open hardware movement, Peter is a frequent speaker at events around the world. He is also founder, board member, and former CEO of Antenna Software, one of the country's largest mobile enterprise software companies. His work has been covered and discussed by the international media includingthe New York Times ,the Economist , the Hindu , Fortune , CNN, Nikkei Business , and Forbes . Peter holds a BA in economics from Brown University.