Aug 1, 2013

'Place' as an IoT Strategy

As with the case of ‘cloud computing services’ and ‘big-data’, Internet of Things (IoT) applications [1] have been propelled into the business mainstream as companies have jumped on the latest wave of business-press marketing.

For companies that actually want and need to develop an IoT strategy, however, the lack of clarity in distinguishing between IoT services (based on mash-ups of data from multiple and often un-related sources) and traditional M2M services (which involve connected devices within a narrow and well defined industry vertical) constitutes a source of long term business risk.

A connected refrigerator, for example, should be considered as a consumer M2M application (if the owner is provided with an application to monitor the refrigerator's contents or the operational status of its compressor or ice-maker).

If data from the refrigerator (e.g. how frequently it is used) is combined with data from other connected devices in a home (weight scales, connected toothbrush, motion sensors etc.) to provide an assisted living application then this use of connected devices data, within a secondary application, illustrates an example IoT service.

Companies that re-badge M2M applications as IoT are likely to waste at least one product development cycle because they are not focused on the longer term potential inherent to their devices. This is akin to Google providing a search engine and failing to analyse search queries to deliver targeted advertising.

The challenge for many companies is to look beyond the primary use of their connected devices. One way out of this impasse is to think about IoT strategy using the notion of ‘place’ as a key factor. The refrigerator example above can be extended into the IoT realm once the refrigerator manufacturer considers a user’s home as the place where cross application opportunities can arise.

Another example of this is to think about transport hubs – airports, train stations, bus termini etc. In each of these ‘places’ there will be vertical M2M applications in segments such as digital display advertising, retail, security, transport information management etc. This territory is ripe for IoT applications that truly leverage data across different verticals.

Retail outlets in an airport concourse, for example, could link their operations to digital advertising panels to launch promotional offers. If security cameras are added to the mix then it becomes possible to monitor for a build-up of queues or crowding in one location and to use this information to prompt travelers to go to other, less crowded, food outlets.

Practically speaking, this could be achieved if all connected devices in a ‘place’ make use of a common data exchange network or platform. Alternatively, devices could exist on different connectivity platforms but employ a standard that allows data to be exchanged across information silos through means such as application programming interfaces (APIs), standardized data models etc.

The ultimate scenario for such a ‘place’ based strategy is the smart city. However, the challenges of coordinating many different agencies and private sector owners of connected devices will take time, especially where old infrastructure has to become ‘connected’ and integrated.

Over the shorter term, transport hubs, public meeting spaces and homes are three examples of ‘places’ where the boundaries are far more manageable and therefore strategically promising for enterprises that need to deliver quick results to their shareholders.

Facilities-management companies and communications service providers that operate in the types of places described above are in an excellent position to orchestrate IoT service opportunities and add value to their existing businesses. In order to succeed, however, they need to be thinking ‘IoT’ and not just ‘M2M’.


[1] For ease of readability, the term ‘IoT’ is used generally through this post to encompass Internet of Things, Internet of Everything and Internet of People types of label. If a distinction needs to be drawn then ‘M2M’ is the label that applies to industrial and enterprise applications; ‘Connected Devices’ captures consumer applications; and, ‘IoT’ applies to applications where devices and data from different verticals are combined to enable new applications. 

Images courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

4 comments:

  1. 30 Mar 2017 update

    Tomorrow's Places - How councils can harness smart capabilities from the New Local Government Network (NLGN)

    http://www.nlgn.org.uk/public/wp-content/uploads/Tomorrows-Places-2.pdf

    ReplyDelete
  2. 11 November 2020 update

    MAKING PLACE

    As we see our working lives being transformed by technology, we have reached a point at which we need to reflect on what this means for the future of physical
    offices and the communities surrounding them.

    https://www.iput.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/IPUT_MakingPlace_Report.pdf

    ReplyDelete
  3. 1 March 2021

    https://youtu.be/GrwI4GIp7nI

    Smart Cities Ontology for Digital Twins

    Common representation of places, infrastructure, and assets will be paramount for interoperability and enabling data sharing between multiple domains. It is our goal to provide a DTDL-based ontology definition to provide common ground for modeling environments leveraging well-established industry standards, accelerate developers time to results, and enable interoperability between DTDL-based solutions from different solution providers. In this episode we present the work we have been doing with our partners Sirus/ OASC to provide DTDL based Smart Cities ontology starting with ETSI CIM NGSI-LD models.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 1 July 2021 update

    Why data protection is key for achieving your smart places goals

    Even if you don’t mean to identify people in your smart places projects, if you can distinguish them from other individuals it will engage data protection law, which applies to the processing of personal data relating to people who “can be identified or who are identifiable”. This includes identifiable directly from the information, or indirectly in combination with other information. This means that pseudonymous data or more seemingly obscure identifiers are personal data.

    Identifiers are more than just the name of a person. It can include types of information that may be quite familiar in smart places products, such as location data, or an online identifier such as IP addresses and cookie identifiers.

    Gathering media access control (MAC) addresses of smartphones like the City of London did in 2013 or capturing Wi-Fi device identifiers like Transport for London undertook in 2016 are likely to be considered processing of personal data.

    These technologies may not directly identify the individual, but you are likely to be able to single them out, and that is enough for data protection law to apply. The use of location data may also engage responsibilities under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations.

    https://www.ukauthority.com/articles/why-data-protection-is-key-for-achieving-your-smart-places-goals/

    ReplyDelete