Consumerium buying signal

A Consumerium buying signal travels over the healthy buying infrastructure to the front end user of Consumerium Services.

This could be actually experienced by the user in a great many ways. The Signal Wiki should have no bias as to how the signal is delivered. That's the main reason the language IS so abstract right now, actually.

• Web browser access to the Signal Wiki would be the default for in-home or in-office use, and might constitute the bulk of Consumerium Service access. However, it would not reach the actual point of sale.

Intershop comparison might operate by web facilities, since one typically does not have both barcodes available anyway at the moment one decides which store to go to.

• We could distribute data on what's in the store in book form, even customized book form. You could for instance slide a frequent buyer card into a slot, and get a printed book with price premium information customized to you, or generic information like scores for at least some subset of highlighted products. This could be done even without friendly retail stores, perhaps, but it would be much more difficult.

Coupons might tie in well to this kind of system.

• Data might get printed at the retail shelf display card someday if some chain or region or nation decides to require it - the first step to Consumerium Country. This might be a way to positively market local food, for instance, and could work with tie-ins to the Slow Food people.

• Customized and definitive buying advice, seen by the end user as a red/yellow/green traffic-type signal, or as a score easily translated into a price premium, or as a note in Simple English about issues with, or merits of, the product at the retail shelf.

These would be expected to enable intrashop comparison of two products that the user is just about to buy, and it would be possible to get feedback on what you did buy, perhaps, if the checkout counter cooperates in the system.

As a healthy signal, it should be sent only over a healthy signal infrastructure. These might be standard TCP/IP networks, Bluetooth or radio. If it can be an audio signal, that's good.

The exact means of delivery probably depends on the way the system is made self-funding, what marketing tie-ins are possible, etc.. This is a task of the Consumerium Governance Organization and probably affects the Consumerium License.