Coming Soon: Internet of Things

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Thousands of everyday dumb objects that we use are becoming smart with implanted chips. These machines will then transmit information that can do a lot of useful stuff for us humans. Like solving the metro traffic. Get real!

 This scenario looks like one of the surreal sci-fi stories we read in books and watch in movies. Time to wake up. This is not a dream. It is becoming a reality; and it's all happening digitally.

 I came across the subject of "Internet of Things" or IoT when I bought a book entitled: Ready or Not" authored by WinstonDamarillo and published by Summit Books.  It was in Part III of the book. I read through this chapter and vaguely absorbed the meaning  of IoT.  I didn't give it much serious thought because it seems that the writer was talking about a far too distant future concept.

Meanwhile, I'm almost finished writing my book about "How To Sell To Modern Trade in The Philippines", and I thought of inserting the idea of the Internet of Things in one of the chapters of my book.  So to appreciate and understand it, I googled the caption and to my surprise, there are already a lot of articles about the IoT.  I also googled to find out if the concept is already a reality in the Philippines.  Lo and behold! there are articles about this, and there is in fact start-up company that is already into the IoT thing.  So now it got me all very curious.

What really is the Internet of Things?  Is this just a concept or is this reality in the making? Well to be truly grounded to the meaning of the caption.  I googled the topic and found two definitions.  There are others like it, but for now, I'll settle for these two.

Image courtesy of leantesting.com

According to Wikipedia "the Internet of Things (IoT) is the inter-networking of physical devices, vehicles (also referred to as "connected devices" and "smart devices"), building and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity that enable these objects to collect and exchange data."

 The Internet of Things according to Jacob Morgan, contributor at Forbes.com defines it as "the concept of basically connecting any device with an on and off switch to the Internet (and/or to each other). This includes everything from cellphones, coffee makers, washing machines, headphones, lamps, wearable devices, and almost anything else you can think of. This also applies to components of machines, for example, a jet engine of an airplane or the drill of an oil rig."

Jacob Morgan added that "the analyst firm Gartner says that by 2020 there will be over 26 billion connected devices. That's a lot of connections (some even estimate this number to be much higher, over 100 billion).  The IoT is a giant network of connected "things" (which also includes people.  The relationship will be between people-people, people-things, and things-things."

I'm going to break down the definition by selecting keywords so that I can digest the meaning of IoT.  It works for me as my way of grasping the meaning and I hope it'll work for you too.
Now that the definition is in bite-size pieces, it'll be easier to chew and digest. The question that is going on in my mind right now is - how will it affect our lives as we approach the year 2020? (Wow! Which by the way is just three years away). Will it just be hype or will it become reality? Will it be boon or bane to everybody? IT predictors say the collected data from this interconnected devices will be utilized to foster improvements which will change how things are done in this world which might either be beneficial to some and disruptive to others. I haven't scratched the surface of the meaning and impact of this concept. But for now, I wrote this article just to add awareness to IoT just like what Winston Damarillo did in his book. 

 As for my book sequel, I'm probably going to find out if the IoT thing is making inroads and improvements in the modern trade grocery business, which is why I'm going to insert a line in my book. Probably, in the future, I'll be writing possibilities in the FMCG as well as Modern Trade about IoT applications in these industries. For example, shortly, IoT might be applied to the iconic shopping cart embedded with sensors and software, that will capture data on shoppers' buying behavior inside the selling area and will be used to better improve their shopping experience.
For comments, suggestions, or questions you can email me at melfonollerajr@gmail.com

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