Internet of Things can be the best possible feedback on my physical and mental health, the best possible deals based on real time monitoring for resource allocation, the best possible decision making based on real time data and information from open sources and the best possible alignments of my local providers with the global potential of wider communities.
Internet of Things is in its essence the seamless flow between the
- BAN (body area network): the ambient hearing aide, the smart t-shirts…
- LAN (local area network): the smart meter as a home interface,
- WAN (wide area network): the bike, car, train, bus, drone…
- VWAN (very wide area network) : the ‘wise’ city as e-gov services everywhere no longer tied to physical locations
Whoever ensures traceability, sustainability and security linking up the gateways is de facto and de jure the new power. We see Google trying to achieve this with the Glass and Lense, the Google Powermeter and NEST, the Car and automotive and the wooing discourse of public office byEric Schmidt and google.org
It is crucial that we organize to create an open source competitor to these gateways to ensure that the future is not old style corporate but truly open, public and inclusive.
It means that the hacking community stops hacking dying systems (actually keeping them alive by even bothering) and start building these gateways.
Where to start?