Features: Difference between revisions

    From Consumerium development wiki R&D Wiki
    (Somehow Product substitution wasn't listed. Added it to "Other features")
    (major cleanup/clarification, added Inter-shop navigation, moving some historical nonsense about how campaigns are valued)
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    ==Features to End User==
    ==Planned Features to End User==


    ===Introduction===
    ===Introduction===
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    *[[Trader]]s ([[export]]er,[[import]]er, [[wholesale]]r etc.)
    *[[Trader]]s ([[export]]er,[[import]]er, [[wholesale]]r etc.)


    *Exact [[location]]s of manufacture (country -> [[village]] -> [[factory]])
    *Exact [[location]]s of manufacture ([[country]] -> [[village]] -> [[factory]])


    *Exact listing of [[raw material]]s  
    *Exact listing of [[raw material]]s  
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    ==Indicators of ethical aspects and social responsibility==
    ==Indicators of ethical aspects and social responsibility==


    *The [[ratio]] of [[asset]]s of the producer compared to average assets of all known producers of same type of product. (Is the company a small, medium, or huge one?) In Finland information on LLC's assets from the previous fiscal period are publicly available from The Board of Patents and Registry http://www.prh.fi. '''If you have knowledge of the public availability or inavailability of this information in other coutries, please help us on our [[Research]]'''
    * [[Company size]]: The ratio of [[asset]]s of the producer compared to average assets of all known producers of same type of product. (Is the company a small, medium, or huge one?) In Finland information on LLC's assets from the previous fiscal period are publicly available from The Board of Patents and Registry http://www.prh.fi. '''If you have knowledge of the public availability or inavailability of this information in other coutries, please help us on our [[Research]]'''


    *Is the product or parts of it [[w:fair trade|fairly traded]]?
    *Is the product or parts of it [[w:fair trade|fairly traded]]?
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    *Information about how well or how badly the production chain treats it's [[employee]]s. This information has quite different meanings in countries of different development stages. For example in Finland the right to and the ability to belong to a trade union can be taken for granted. Also laws exist to ensure equality and work place safety, prohibit discrimination and granted is also the right to have maternal and parental leaves without the fear of losing one's job and so forth. In less developed coutries such laws may not exist or they are not upheld. If this is the case, then examination of these matters  should be conducted on a regional or per company level. Due to the radically varying [[worker's rights]] situation in different parts of the world it seems impossible to form a unified, comparable indictor.
    *Information about how well or how badly the production chain treats it's [[employee]]s. This information has quite different meanings in countries of different development stages. For example in Finland the right to and the ability to belong to a trade union can be taken for granted. Also laws exist to ensure equality and work place safety, prohibit discrimination and granted is also the right to have maternal and parental leaves without the fear of losing one's job and so forth. In less developed coutries such laws may not exist or they are not upheld. If this is the case, then examination of these matters  should be conducted on a regional or per company level. Due to the radically varying [[worker's rights]] situation in different parts of the world it seems impossible to form a unified, comparable indictor.


    *Information about massive [[lay-off]]s during a [[profit]]able [[fiscal period]]. (Supposing that the data is available, a numeric, comparable indicator can be calculated. Different formulas for calculating this are being discussed) This is a quite common practise in industrialised economies to boost [[stock]] value to [[yield]] valueble [[bonus]]es and greater stock option gains to the [[highest management]].
    *Information about massive [[lay-off]]s during a [[profit]]able [[fiscal period]]. (Supposing that the data is available, a numeric, comparable indicator can be calculated. Different formulas for calculating this are being discussed) This is a quite common practise in industrialised economies to boost [[w:share|stock]] value to [[yield]] valueble [[bonus]]es and greater stock option gains to the [[highest management]].


    *Assessment of [[ethical]]ity of the product group
    *Assessment of [[ethical]]ity of the product group
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    *[[Automatic comparison|Automatic]] price, grading, ecologicality and ethicality comparison to other similar products sold '''in the same store'''.
    *[[Automatic comparison|Automatic]] price, grading, ecologicality and ethicality comparison to other similar products sold '''in the same store'''.


    *[[Personal navigation]] in the store. The consumer can choose a product from a tree-like menu or enter it's name and the system tells on what row, on which side of the row, on what part of the row and on which shelf the desired product can be found. This feature can have a small effect on [[employment]] provided by the store since customers require less service from the store staff.
    *[[Intra-shop navigation]] in the store. The consumer can choose a product from a tree-like menu or enter it's name and the system tells on what row, on which side of the row, on what part of the row and on which shelf the desired product can be found. This feature can have a small effect on [[employment]] provided by the store since customers require less service from the store staff.
     
    *[[Inter-shop navigation]]. If a [[product group]] you require is not sold at this store the system can instruct you to the geographically closest store that sells what you need.


    *Possibility to watch [[Advertisement Video]]s and [[Informational Video]]s on the product and producer created by the [[producer]], [[importer]] or [[marketer]]. This requires terminals equipped with color displays and powerful video decoding features, which are projected to hit the mass markets in the first decennium of the 21st century. Big producers can utilize their tv-adverts with minor changes, so that they can be streamed to mobile terminals. Small producers enjoy the benfits of being able to convey marketing materials to consumers in a video-form with extremely low cost. Informational videos could deal with eg. working conditions, treatment of production animals and the enviromental and other principles of the company.
    *Possibility to watch [[Advertisement Video]]s and [[Informational Video]]s on the product and producer created by the [[producer]], [[importer]] or [[marketer]]. This requires terminals equipped with color displays and powerful video decoding features, which are projected to hit the mass markets in the first decennium of the 21st century. Big producers can utilize their tv-adverts with minor changes, so that they can be streamed to mobile terminals. Small producers enjoy the benfits of being able to convey marketing materials to consumers in a video-form with extremely low cost. Informational videos could deal with eg. working conditions, treatment of production animals and the enviromental and other principles of the company.


    *[[Multi-language support]]. Foreigners and travellers can use the system in their own language, which is a big help when doing shopping in a foreign store. Immigrants can have the system function in two languages simultaneously, which makes adapting to their new homeland and language swifter and less troublesome.
    *[[Wiktionary|Multi-language support]]. Foreigners and travellers can use the system in their own language, which is a big help when doing shopping in a foreign store. Immigrants can have the system function in two languages simultaneously, which makes adapting to their new homeland and language swifter and less troublesome.


    *Information on consumption [[endorsement]]s or [[boycott]]s ([[campaigns]]) targeted at companies in the [[production chain]], or their [[owner]]s. The endorsers or boycotters "value weight" is calculated using weightmultipliers. This is necessary in order to filter out non-credible campaigns and campaigns that are started on false grounds, even [[lie]]s, to undermine the [[integrity of information]] offered by the system. The consumer can define these weightmultipliers to the Consumer Agent themselves or use weightmultipliers defined by NGOs. NGOs will be instructed on creating weigtmultipliers in an unified way. When evaluating the weight of an organisation the criteria will include at least the following: General reputation, the quality of their research work, quality of their arguments,  number of members and age of the organisation. The weight of the campaign consists of weight of the initiator of the campaign and those organisations that decide to support the campaign.
    *Information on consumption [[endorsement]]s or [[boycott]]s ([[campaigns]]) targeted at companies in the [[production chain]], or their [[owner]]s.  


    *Sending [[feedback]] to the producer. (I bought / I didn't buy your product because... arguments prepared by NGOs, opinions for and against. Of course there is the possibility to compose your own text, but it takes time and effort on a mobile telephone. You can give feed-back anonymously or with your e-mail address included.) Delievery method of the feed-back is e-mail or direct transfer to the company's database if this has been arranged.
    *Sending [[feedback]] to the producer. (I bought / I didn't buy your product because... arguments prepared by NGOs, opinions for and against. Of course there is the possibility to compose your own text, but it takes time and effort on a mobile telephone. [[Bluetooth|Bluetooth keyboards]] are emerging to markets at the moment. If retailers offer these for use, then it makes feedback more versatile.
    **You can give feed-back anonymously or with your e-mail address included.) Delievery method of the feed-back is e-mail or direct transfer to the company's database if this has been arranged.
    **You can give feedback on your user experience (after you've bought the product). This can accelerate the product development.


    *[[Product substitution]] information: Information on what less destructive alternatives there are for some [[Product]] or [[Product Group]].
    *[[Product substitution]] information: Information on what less destructive alternatives there are for some [[Product]] or [[Product Group]].
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    ==Special group: Food stuffs==
    ==Special group: Food stuffs==


    *Connection to the [[Recipe]]-database (Contains recipies submitted by the producer, consumers and 3rd parties)
    *Connection to the database containing [[Recipies]].


    *Is the product [[organic]]?
    *Is the product [[w:organic|organic food|]]?


    *Is the product suitable for [[w:vegetarian]]s, [[w:vegan]]s, people with [[w:allergy|allergies]], [[w:Lactose intolerance|lactose intolerant]]s or people with religious [[diet]]ary customs etc.
    *Is the product suitable for [[w:vegetarian|vegetarian]]s, [[w:vegan|vegan]]s, people with [[w:allergy|allergies]], [[w:Lactose intolerance|lactose intolerant]]s or people with religious [[w:list of diets|diet]]ary customs etc.


    *Calculation of [[nutritional value]] of the product
    *Calculation of [[nutritional value|]] of the product


    *Calculation of nutritional value of [[recepies]]
    *Calculation of nutritional value of [[recepies]]


    *Calculation of [[material-cost]]s for recepies
    *Calculation of [[material-cost]]s for recepies

    Revision as of 19:31, 19 June 2003

    Planned Features to End User

    Introduction

    In the starting phase of the project it is important to chart the possible features so that the demand analysis can be done as precisely as possible before work is begun on the markup language that describes products and their production process and on the software components.

    Below is a preliminary list of features and data to be delivered to the consumer. Each consumer can define to their Consumer Agent what information they wish to browse in an everyday situation and what criteria the Agent checks and compares automatically.

    All product analyses done by the system should yield such results that can be automatically compared against each other by the Agent. The agent bases its overall analysis on those precalculated analyses that the consumer has chosen as points of interest. This necessarily implies having trusted mediators (NGOs mainly) who the consumer has chosen to trust, and which makes moral distinctions that the consumer cares about.

    Information that has to be gathered about products and production processes and analyses and indicators based on the raw data (for all types of products eg. foodstuffs, clothing, household items etc.):


    Raw data

    • Manufacturers of raw materials
    • Locations of raw material manufacturing
    • Is a raw material gene manipulated (GM)
    • Is the product suitable for vegans?
    • Ownership relations of the manufacturing chain (Companies participating in production or trading)
    • Monopoly: is the company now or has it ever been in a monopoly situation? Has it come to a market where someone holds an monopoly?

    Indicators of Environmental Friendliness

    • Recyclability assessment of product packaging (packaging material weight per product weight, information on usage of recycled materials and future recyclability of packaging material). For optimal results it'd be best to distinguish between functional packaging and decorative packaging. Building a packaging matrix to automatically assess pros and cons of different alterenative styles of packaging for some product group should be done
    • Assessment of the energy consumption (includes manufacturing and transport)
    • Assessment of the material consumption in manufacturing (types and amounts of materials)
    • Waste generated during production
    • Assessment of environmental effects of the product category. Attempts to describe environmental effects common to all products of same category.
    • Assessment of environmental effects of the product comparable to other products in same category

    Indicators of ethical aspects and social responsibility

    • Company size: The ratio of assets of the producer compared to average assets of all known producers of same type of product. (Is the company a small, medium, or huge one?) In Finland information on LLC's assets from the previous fiscal period are publicly available from The Board of Patents and Registry http://www.prh.fi. If you have knowledge of the public availability or inavailability of this information in other coutries, please help us on our Research
    • Information about how well or how badly the production chain treats it's employees. This information has quite different meanings in countries of different development stages. For example in Finland the right to and the ability to belong to a trade union can be taken for granted. Also laws exist to ensure equality and work place safety, prohibit discrimination and granted is also the right to have maternal and parental leaves without the fear of losing one's job and so forth. In less developed coutries such laws may not exist or they are not upheld. If this is the case, then examination of these matters should be conducted on a regional or per company level. Due to the radically varying worker's rights situation in different parts of the world it seems impossible to form a unified, comparable indictor.
    • Information about massive lay-offs during a profitable fiscal period. (Supposing that the data is available, a numeric, comparable indicator can be calculated. Different formulas for calculating this are being discussed) This is a quite common practise in industrialised economies to boost stock value to yield valueble bonuses and greater stock option gains to the highest management.
    • Information about how animals are treated, if the product contains animal based raw materials.

    Other services

    • Automatic price, grading, ecologicality and ethicality comparison to other similar products sold in the same store.
    • Intra-shop navigation in the store. The consumer can choose a product from a tree-like menu or enter it's name and the system tells on what row, on which side of the row, on what part of the row and on which shelf the desired product can be found. This feature can have a small effect on employment provided by the store since customers require less service from the store staff.
    • Possibility to watch Advertisement Videos and Informational Videos on the product and producer created by the producer, importer or marketer. This requires terminals equipped with color displays and powerful video decoding features, which are projected to hit the mass markets in the first decennium of the 21st century. Big producers can utilize their tv-adverts with minor changes, so that they can be streamed to mobile terminals. Small producers enjoy the benfits of being able to convey marketing materials to consumers in a video-form with extremely low cost. Informational videos could deal with eg. working conditions, treatment of production animals and the enviromental and other principles of the company.
    • Multi-language support. Foreigners and travellers can use the system in their own language, which is a big help when doing shopping in a foreign store. Immigrants can have the system function in two languages simultaneously, which makes adapting to their new homeland and language swifter and less troublesome.
    • Sending feedback to the producer. (I bought / I didn't buy your product because... arguments prepared by NGOs, opinions for and against. Of course there is the possibility to compose your own text, but it takes time and effort on a mobile telephone. Bluetooth keyboards are emerging to markets at the moment. If retailers offer these for use, then it makes feedback more versatile.
      • You can give feed-back anonymously or with your e-mail address included.) Delievery method of the feed-back is e-mail or direct transfer to the company's database if this has been arranged.
      • You can give feedback on your user experience (after you've bought the product). This can accelerate the product development.
    • Browsing and querying the Company-database

    Special group: Food stuffs

    • Connection to the database containing Recipies.
    • Calculation of [[nutritional value|]] of the product
    • Calculation of nutritional value of recepies