Dan Gillmor suggests that consumers can gain power if each item around us has an RFID tag that provides information back to us on the spot:

"People want more information about what they're buying, and what they own. Web discussion sites have already become a major tool for customers, before and after the purchase.

But the increasing power of handheld devices, combined with pervasive wireless data networks, add new elements. Once we can identify what we're looking at or holding, untethered to our personal computers, the information balance shifts further in our direction."

I too see the potential to shift the balance of power to consumers. What Dan describes is "ubiquitous computing," something we have written about here and here.

But if ubiquitous computing sounds too futuristic for you, Dan's article points out some related projects that may be a little closer to achieving. More to come....