Discourse with Disposable Computers: How and Why Will You Talk to Your Tomatoes

Beyond ubiquitous computing, is the advent of disposable computing, occurring when the price of an embedded computer becomes insignificant compared to the cost of goods. Current software and network architectures and their associated programming paradigms will not scale to this new world. The necessity of catering for the constant change in number and type of devices of interest to a user, as well as their sheer quantity, dictates new approaches to construction of software systems based on more flexible models. We propose that distributed event notification forms a fundamental requirement for systems of this scale, and discuss the advantages of undirected communication over current interaction models. Our experience with Elvin, a prototype notification system motivates the discussion and serves as illustration of its possibilities.