dot. and the Hub

The Hub

The Hub is an idea for an internet within the internet which was developed as part of the easy town story.

On the Hub users can choose a simple 2D view, or change into a 3D view and use an avatar to go into digital rooms.
These digital rooms include a living room with all sorts of communication tools such as texting, chatting avatar to avatar, or talk via video. Among many other rooms, there is also a shopping mall.

Everything on the Hub can be adapted to the preferences of the user. This means, whether or not the shopping mall is a mall or a shopping street, is up to the user. And whether this shopping street has a dot.shop or not is also up to the user.

dot. on the Hub

Maybe a user chooses to connect to the local dot.workshop via the Hub, or searches the dot.website as an anonymous surfer via the Hub. The user is the master of what they want to do and how.

Someone who likes dot. can turn their Hub into the main place for their dot.experiences by creating their own 3D dot.showroom which always keeps the user up to date with the latest creations from their favourite designers.

Also, a customer at a dot.workshop is likely to have an outfit adviser who can communicate with the customer via the Hub communication channels.

On the Hub it is possible to pick up items and look at them in 3D. And a customer can use their own avatar or the avatar for a friend to test what an outfit might look like on them or their friend.

On top of that, the Hub can offer dot.fashion shows from around the world in the Hub cinema, and online workshops around fashion, clothing and everything that is connected to it.

Plus, the Hub payment service can be used by dot.customers.

dot. at Hub Stations

Hub Stations are the places where the digital Hub world touches ground and shares parts of its profits with the local community by extending a Hub Station (home to servers and service teams) to include local businesses, artist venues, gardens & farms, a recycling unit, a micro grid, schools, workshops, shops, restaurants, a health centre and whatever else is needed locally.

dot.workshops are an ideal addition for a Hub Station and offer locals easy access to dot.collections from around the world. dot. could also develop a special collection for the people who work for the Hub and thereby ensure that all Hub staff have access to sustainable clothes.

dot. and marketing on the Hub

The Hub is a space where self-determination has a high priority. At first, that excluded every manipulation via advertising. But then, whether or not to consume manipulative content should be a choice, too. Therefore, the Hub will provide an Ads Cupboard, where a user can choose to dive into the latest inventive stories created by marketing people.

Testing Hub features in book 2/2, travelling

Text messages

7:44 I just switched my avatar to visible for everyone in our test group. It’s quite crowded, and I see Maja in the background, and Seth.

7:46 I’m sitting between Andy and Hachiro. Andy is already super focused, but Hachiro is a little nervous. Tess, his co-head, looked after the dot.features for the Hub. It’s his first time online. But I think, he’ll be OK. He just said, I prefer a real workshop, real people and real fabrics. Me too. But I’m starting to like the Hub.

(…)

9:37 Just met up with Hachiro in the Hub’s Sound Basement to chill a little. He says hello. He finished his dot.tests. He’s really happy with the results. And I completed half of my rooms. So now we test the Sound Basement together by chilling out here /:-)

(…)

11:11 I met Noel in the Ads Cupboard. First his avatar was a yellow canary on human legs. Then he switched it to some kind of Hulk to make faces at the advertisers crammed in here. They are all trying to outperform each other, and that despite the big-lettered fact-checks that accompany the ads. Noel says, the advertisers are stuck in weird delusions and pass those delusions on to their prospective customers.

book 2/2, travelling

A note on marketing

First published in the dot.story

When Ketaki mentioned advertising, Az was suddenly very much awake again and sat up. ‘Advertising sucks. It screws with us. It tells us fucking lies all the time. And it’s not even interested in us. It just wants us to go buy more, and more, and more. How does dot. do advertising? I don’t think I’ve ever seen any.’
‘We have a marketing team, and the dot.executive team had to intervene a few times, because the marketing people had to deal with hostility from other teams. A bit like the stuff you just said.’
‘Hm.’
‘It took us a while to find a marketing approach we could all subscribe to, and the main ingredient is: dot.marketing isn’t about manipulation or about setting trends. It’s about seeing the individual, supporting and advising them, and empowering people of every shape, colour, preference, background or mood.’
‘Words.’
‘Yes. But also actions. The main task of the marketing team is to find all the questions and needs the customers have and to deal with both. On top of that, the teams who market a product inform about the product, and illustrate for whom this product might be interesting. Saying that, events play a big part.’ Ketaki paused, then she added: ‘Most team members calmed down when the marketing team pointed out that dot.’s offers are so diverse that even if they wanted to manipulate customers, they could only manipulate them into being themselves.’
‘Hm. Who does the advertising?’
‘It’s done here at the headquarters. This way no designer, workshop, station or anyone else needs a marketing team, and there are enough overlaps to save costs this way.’
‘Hm,’ Az said and snuggled closer to Ketaki again.

dot.story

Links

There are more overlaps and possible synergies between the project business ideas.

See the following links for more.

Possible cooperation and overlaps

book stations & dot., book stations website

book stations & the Hub, book stations website

The Hub & businesses, The Hub website

More business ideas

For a comprehensive overview of the project business ideas see the following links on the easy town ideas website:

Support the projects, projects overview

Rethinking business practices, digging a bit deeper

More on the dot.website

dot. as a blueprint, business ideas which use the dot.model

And the dot.book.

Charlie Alice Raya

dot.book

Content: How dot. was developed, digging deeper into the dot.ideas, dot. as a blueprint for eleven other business ideas, additional notes on business practices, such as job shaking and more

Pages: 281 pages, 58k words
Format: ePub
Files: dot.book, ePub, dot.tour, pdf, book stations tour, pdf
Price: €8.60 (incl. VAT)

More dot.specials

dot.simulations and dot.profits