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Digital Patina

As an interesting companion to my post on the weight (or lack thereof) of digital goods, you should check out Mark Boulton’s article on Digital Patina…

The problem with digital products — our websites, applications, phone applications etc — is they don’t age the same way as some physical things. They either don’t age at all: locked in a permanent state whilst the world changes around them. Or they age in the same way plastic does: slowly decaying into tiny chunks that float about for eternity. Always there. Never to be used. Of little significant value. You see, producing digital products is not a sustainable practice. How can we impart a digital patina on the things we use. What is the flavour of an application? Iteration? Code? UX?

It’s the kind of post that, for me anyways, raises more questions than it answers. I’d love to hear your thoughts.