THE (IOT) REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED Why internet of things meetups are important & what you can bring to a global conversation. @iotwatch

About Director of designswarm a consultancy focusing on strategy, policy and building communities in the internet of things. Former founder & CEO of Tinker London the first distributor of the Arduino Former partner of design partnership RIG London

What I will cover A bit of history. Why meeting is important. Using what you have.

What is the Internet of Things? A new generation of everyday objects which have embedded connectivity and a digital component.

Human factors & ergonomics… “The study of designing equipment and devices that fit the body and its cognitive abilities”

Human Computer Interaction (1983) “The study, planning, design & use of interaction between people and computers ”

Interaction Design (1988) “The practice of designing interactive digital products, environments, systems & services”

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, CERN (1989) “In practice, it is useful for the system to be aware of the generic types of links between items […] and the types of nodes (people, things, documents) without imposing any limitations.”

Trojan Room Coffee Pot (1993-2001) The world’s first webcam, using an Acorn computer it allowed people across the building to avoid pointless trips to the coffee room if there was no coffee left.

Kevin Ashton (2001) Kevin Ashton coined the term while at Auto-ID Center at MIT meant it in the context of RFID. Now it implies all the technologies that allow products to be connected online. (wifi, GSM, BT, radio,etc)

Early products (2005-) Ambient Devices, Violet & Vitality were companies that led the way early on in the US & France.

New Media Art & early wearables Wearables at the time was a very academic & artistic field where experiments were presented at SIGGRAPH conference every year.

Arduino (2005) An open source hardware and software electronics learning tool. The starting point the Maker movement.

Sparked a maker movement

And a whole industry…

…of inventors The Arduino innovated by starting with arts & design students who were making visually appealing responsive objects. Later they would connect them to the web and social media platforms.

Boosted by crowdfunding

Incubators too

Makers turn into markets Kati London at ITP designed Botanicalls in 2006.

Remote plant watering is everywhere

Connectivity requirements are everywhere

SmartStones / Nivea armband

Fitness & health

Security

Glanceables

Education

Retail

Energy

Play

Build a story

Cook

Hardware

Connectivity

Battery life

Standards

Privacy

Security

But there are many challenges

And insurance products are coming An unlikely fanbase for the Internet of Things are insurance companies now building flexible, responsive premiums.

User experience hell “the warnings the devices emit — beeps that become more persistent as the due date for the loan payment approaches — are seen by some borrowers as more degrading than helpful”

The London iot meetup Started in November 2011 (40 members) Now 3.2K members 1-2 monthly newsletters 1 meetup a month 2 showcases a year

The Importance of meeting IOT is an unnatural meeting of different industries & silos: •  Product Design •  User experiences •  Manufacturing •  Retail •  Embedded software •  Front end design •  Big Data analytics •  Startups •  Academics

A diverse community Map at designswarm.com/services/communities

Active collaborations Kemuri is an elderly tracking device and founder Leonard Anderson met his co-founders at the meetup. He now has £25K of funding to prototype the product further. kemuri.co.uk

A place to get feedback We don’t really document the meetups well. This means startups get early feedback and learn to answer hard questions.

A throw-away term Internet of things might move on to become connected devices but the opportunities, challenges and need for a multi-disciplinary approach are the same.

Consortiums

Locally-grown standards

The space for corporates is minimal •  Incubators •  Infrastructure •  Device-based services

The space for startups is huge The internet of things is only as valuable as its applications. It’s like talking about electricity without lightbulbs and toasters. Invention of end-user applications that work, that people want to integrate in their lives can only really come from small groups of people willing to quite their jobs and do something new.

Try things that work locally but think globally. Agricultural monitoring Sports Environmental monitoring Consumer products

Local people I know (you know more I’m sure) Philip Lindsay / rancidbacon.com Anne Galloway / digitalculturelab.org Marc Pesce / moorescloud.com David ten Have / Makey Makey (ex Ponoko)

Good luck. www.designswarm.com alex@designswarm.com @designswarm @iotwatch @iotlondon