BRUCE STERLING: Julian, what does a blogject do differently from an object?

Well, a blogject is like an object with social tendencies, worldly. It wants to be more than inert, more than a physical object. It has a tendency to be unique and contribute to conversations in specific, situated contexts. And they do this because they are net-savvy, and know all about the latest and greatest of sharing and circulating information in the connected world.

Objects — the more inert cousin of blogjects — aren’t necessarily net-savvy. They certainly are social in lots of meaningful ways. You can get an object that inspires very social action, conversations or activities — a board game or well-designed chair, for instance. Blogjects can be as socially engaged as objects, only they do so with the full-force and power of what digital content dissemination techniques provide — feeds, aggregation, tagging, etc.

Blogjects are social in the way they address topics of concern. They’re clever machines, but not artificial intelligences.