The “Internet of things” (IoT) is becoming an increasingly growing topic of
conversation both in the workplace and outside of it. It’s a concept that not
only has the potential to impact how we live but also how we work. But
what exactly is the “Internet of things” and what impact is it going to have on
you if any? There are a lot of complexities around the “Internet of things”
but I want to stick to the basics. Lots of technical and policy related
conversations are being had but many people are still just trying to grasp the
foundation of what the heck these conversations are about.
Let’s start with understanding a few things.
Broadband Internet is become more widely available,
the cost of connecting is decreasing, more devices are being created with wifi
capabilities and sensors built into them, technology costs are going down, and
smart phone penetration is sky-rocketing. All of these things are
creating a “perfect storm” for the IoT.
So what is the Internet
of things?
Simply put this is the concept
of basically connecting any device with an on and off switch to the Internet
(and/or to each other). This includes everything from cell phones, coffee
makers, washing machines, headphones, lamps, wearable devices and almost
anything else you can think of. This also applies to components of
machines, for example a jet engine of an airplane or the drill of an oil rig.
As I mentioned, if it has an on and off switch then chances are it can be
a part of the IoT. The analyst firm Gartner says that by 2020 there will be over 26 billion
connected devices…that’s a lot of connections (some even estimate this number
to be much higher, over 100 billion). The IoT is a giant network of
connected “things” (which also includes people). The relationship will be
between people-people, people-things, and things-things.
How does this impact
you?
The new rule for the future is going to
be, “anything that can be
connected, will be connected.” But why on earth would you want so many connected
devices talking to each other? There are many examples for what this
might look like or what the potential value might be. Say for example you
are on your way to a meeting, your car could have access to your calendar and
already know the best route to take, if the traffic is heavy your car might
send a text to the other party notifying them that you will be late. What
if your alarm clock wakes up you at 6 am and then notifies your coffee maker to
start brewing coffee for you? What if your office equipment knew when it was
running low on supplies and automatically re-ordered more? What if the
wearable device you used in the workplace could tell you when and where you
were most active and productive and shared that information with other devices
that you used while working?
The reality is that the IoT allows for
virtually endless opportunities and connections to take place, many of which we
can’t even think of or fully understand the impact of today. It’s
not hard to see how and why the IoT is such a hot topic today, it certainly
opens the door to a lot of opportunities but also to many challenges. Security is big
issues that is oftentimes brought up. With billions of devices being
connect together what can people to do make sure that their information stays
secure? Will someone be able to hack into your toaster and thereby get
access to your entire network? The IoT also opens up companies all over
the world to more security threats. Then we have the issue of privacy and
data sharing. This is a hot button topic even today so one can only
imagine how the conversation and concerns will escalate when we are talking
about many billions of devices being connected. Another issue that many
companies specifically are going to be faced with is around the massive amounts
data that all of these devices are going to produce. Companies need to
figure out a way to store, track, analyze, and make sense of the vast amounts
of data that will be generated.
So what now?
Conversations about the IoT are (and have been for
several years) taking place all over the world as we seek to understand how
this will impact our lives. We are also trying to understand what the
many opportunities and challenges are going to be as more and more devices
start to join the IoT. For now the best thing that we can do is educate
ourselves about what the IoT is and the potential impacts that can be seen on
how we work and live.
From< http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobmorgan/2014/05/13/simple-explanation-internet-things-that-anyone-can-understand/>
Questions:
1. Tell the story if
you have any IOT examples in your real world.
2. How much can we trust the IoT? How much can we take humans out of the
loop?
3. What impact will the IoT have on jobs, and how can we prepare the
workforce?