Reflections on the internet of things and yet another revolution

The internet of things and yet another revolution
The “internet of things” is viewed as the next big thing, but when will it allow people to create their own stuff, asks Russell M Davies on the BBC website.

“It’s a world where everything is smart – smart cities, smart grids, everything prefaced by smart. It’s a world of sensors in bridges so the bridge can report when it needs maintenance. This world where everything reports on its status to some kind of mothership is close to coming upon us.

It falls down, though, when it starts to think about people, and when it starts to design for how people will get involved in this infrastructure. It is not a bad or stupid world, it is just slightly boring. There is none of the texture or magic or specialness of life in it.” […]

“It is not about the thing, it is about the satisfaction of making it and the relationships which surround it. That is what will be so transformative and bewitching about the next technological revolution.

It will not be about media and screens, it will be about our lives and the objects we surround our lives with.”

My problem with the “Internet Of Things”
My problem with the “Internet Of Things” is the Things, writes Matt Jones of Berg London (formerly Nokia Design and Dopplr).

“Matter is important.

To which you quite rightly cry – “Well, duh!”

It is something we are attuned to as creatures evolved of a ‘middle world’.

It is something we invest emotion, value and memory in.

Also, a new language of product is possible, and important as the surface of larger systems.”