ThingsAmongMany

I recently saw a tweet from someone I follow (sorry, I can’t remember who it was) about an interesting little device that I wasn’t familiar with. The tweet mentioned how excited that person was to use their new Poken (as do many other tweets). Being digitally web-curious person that I am, the first thing I did was hunt down the Poken to see what it is. I should not that I probably hadn’t heard of the Poken because it appears to be a primarily European phenomenon right now.

Turns out, it’s a cross between a Tamagachi and a business card. A Poken is a little USB-based character that you carry around in your pocket. It stores your personal social media information for whichever networks you choose to enter (I can’t seem to find a comprehensive list of supported networks). When you meet someone new, you “high-four” (like high-five, but a Poken only has four fingers, so…) your Poken with theirs and the devices automatically exchange whatever information you’ve chosen to share. When you get home, you plug your Poken into the USB slot on your computer and it uploads all of your new contacts to their respective social networks.

Despite the admitedly corny act of sharing information – how many adults really want to be seen “high-fouring” little keychain toys in public – the Poken does provide an interesting look at the collision between the phsyical act of meeting new people and our newly-found tendency to immediately “connect” with those people in the digital space. It will be interesting to see how this trend plays out over the next couple of years, and whether it takes off in a more adult format.

Tags: Poken