Eric Paulos sent me a link to Umbrella.net, a project by Jonah Brucker-Cohen and Katherine Moriwaki exploring coincidence of need, using ad-hoc networking to examine how new relationships can form based on proximity and chance conditions (such as opening an umbrella in the rain).
The umbrellas will contain embedded components that are used along with iPaqs to share semi-personal information “such as weather information based on location and use of their umbrellas over time, route maps of each individual’s journey, personality traits, music sharing, and countless others.”
I’m not sure exactly what the application(s) would look like, or what impact it/they would have, but I like the idea of transitory networks based on proximity and the prospect of sharing information in a semi-anonymous way as people share space for limited periods of time. I’m reminded of Eric’s Familiar Stranger project, and Mikael Wiberg‘s paper on his FolkMusic project.