[projectvrm] Is Google Wallet VRM?

[Doc Searls < >]

http://www.google.com/wallet/

As a service is it user driven? As in...

http://blog.joeandrieu.com/2009/04/26/introducing-user-driven-services/

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/vrm/2008/04/28/vrm-is-user-driven/

Is it a substitutable service? 

Does it make us all go Moo? That's what it sounds like here:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZGoXvzW4WU>

For more on Moo, visit Craig Burton's latest:

<http://www.craigburton.com/?p=3221>

Google's "vision" looks broader than that, though:

<http://www.google.com/wallet/vision.html>

As for VRM, how is this...

> Payments, offers, loyalty, and so much more
> Google Wallet has been designed for an open commerce ecosystem. It will 
> eventually hold many if not all of the cards you keep in your leather 
> wallet today. And because Google Wallet is a mobile app, it will be able to 
> do more than a regular wallet ever could, like storing thousands of payment 
> cards and Google Offers but without the bulk. Eventually your loyalty 
> cards, gift cards, receipts, boarding passes, tickets, even your keys will 
> be seamlessly synced to your Google Wallet. And every offer and loyalty 
> point will be redeemed automatically with a single tap via NFC.

... not a personal data store/locker/vault/whatever ?

To Brian's question yesterday about a simple standard for receipts, does 
Google have one in here somewhere? Can we leverage it elsewhere?

Can our personal data stores work together with Google on this thing, so the 
commercial corner of our stores is exposed in the Wallet?

Many years ago Microsoft wanted to get into this game (also using the wallet 
metaphor) but they also wanted a piece of the action, so the banks freaked 
and it didn't work. (Looking for sources on this. If anybody has them, please 
send them ASAP. I just have today to get this in the book, if it fits 
somewhere.)

Amazing market hack: Google doesn't want a piece of the retail action. They 
want to open log-jams in shopping and checkout. Reduce friction.

See the FAQ:

<http://www.google.com/wallet/faq.html>

But, again, is it substitutable? Can it be duplicated, reverse engineered by 
others? Is enough of the base code available for somebody to do that? Why 
would they try, if they don't get a piece of the action? 

That's Google's amazing hack. There is no action to get a piece of. Just like 
there's no action in Android. It's free for the taking, a non-tragic commons.

Thoughts?

Doc