Addressing the Internet of Things

by Robert Szyngiel, Director, Product Management (Data/OEM Partnerships), DMTI Spatial

In the 21st century, connectivity plays any important role. Everywhere we go, connectivity surrounds us. At the office, at home, in the car, our society today depends and relies on being connected in some way.

Everything that we do today, connectivity plays a significant role. Our phones seamlessly connect with our cars through Bluetooth and instantly we have hands free calling. Our TV’s connect with the internet to provide us with entertainment at the blink of an eye. Even when we go shopping, RFID tags are added to merchandise on store shelves allowing for product to be replenished faster for customers. Connectivity affects all of our lives in some way.

At first, it would seem that it is only the devices are having this conversation.

But there is something larger being created – the Internet of Things.

As per the European Commission - Information Society and Media DG – the Internet of Things is defined as:

“A world where physical objects are seamlessly integrated into the information network, and where the physical objects can become active participants in business processes. Services are available to interact with these 'smart objects' over the Internet, query and change their state and any information associated with them, taking into account security and privacy issues.”

All of this communication will be enabled without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. All of these combined connections will strengthen the power of this ecosystem and its ability to deliver new insights.

The SRI Consulting Business Intelligence group has suggested a technology roadmap for the Internet of Things.

We now find ourselves in the period (2010-2020), where more vertical-market applications will be developed as the location awareness between people and everyday objects increases.

One of these everyday objects are the addresses where we live and work.

Through the identification and pervasiveness of each unique address and its location – new conversations between machines and humans can be enabled.

Examples include:

• A home owner leaves their house and the phone communicates with the house to arm the alarm as the home owner leaves their geo-fence
• The business needs to calculate the precise distance between the address (home/business) and the network to decide how to best service the end customer

The possibilities are endless and will be defined by the imagination of providers to the consumer and business markets.

Gartner has indicated that most enterprises and technology vendors have yet to explore the possibilities of an expanded Internet and are not operationally or organizationally ready.

Four basic usage models that are emerging include:

• Manage
• Monetize
• Operate
• Extend

These can be applied to people, things, information, and places (or the four “internets”), and therefore the so called “Internet of Things” will be succeeded by the “Internet of Everything.”

The address will be a crucial link between people, things, information and places.

This important piece of the internet of everything is already online.

@RobertSzyngiel

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