Dreamforce’s first day has not disappointed.
The attendees at Salesforce’s annual event, and the multitude watching via the web, were treated to a bizarre Back to the Future sketch starring co-founder Parker Harris dressed up as Doc Brown, music from live bands, protesters disrupting CEO Marc Benioff talking to Marissa Mayer, and even an appearance from Sean Penn.
But aside from all the entertainment, planned and otherwise, the main message Benioff was getting across was clear. The world is getting closer to a future where nearly all our devices will be ‘smart’ – connected to the web and talking to each other.
Benioff says this makes it all about the customer – I can press a button on my blender to complain to the manufacturer when it breaks down – but I’m not so sure.
He told us that he wants his toothbrush to feed all the data it collects about his teeth (it was an odd anecdote) to his dentist, and expressed outrage that his alma mater didn’t greet him by name when he went back to visit.
One quote, though, was revealing about the direction in which Benioff wants this future to go: "In the world of the Internet of customers, consumers get transformed into customers."
This translates as someone who buys a product is now someone a company can advertise to thanks to that product, who can be sent detailed and personalised emails persuading this man or woman to buy more of the company’s gear, after the product quietly observes the person’s usage habits and tracks their behaviour.
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This, to me, seems creepy.
It’s a future of hyper-capitalism, where buying a product fuels more marketing and buying, until every device you own is feeding back information about you to the conglomerates, and your every thought is interrupted your smartphone pinging with the arrival of a new ‘why not try our…’ message.
It’s enough to turn you Amish. The future of the Internet of things is incredibly exciting, and will transform healthcare, education and just about every industry you can think of, but how excited can anyone get about all these technological advances going towards the production of more specific spam?
