Building an open web of things

Building an
Open Web of Things

(Hit s to see summary of talk)

"During 2008, the number of things connected to the Internet exceeded the number of people one earth.
By 2020 there will be 50 billion."

—CISCO

You've probably heard of the internet of things.

According to CISCO there are already more things than people on the internet and this number is only going to increase.

The web of things builds on the internet of things, by suggesting that we can connect IoT devices to each other and with the rest of the web using protocols, technologies, and approaches developed for the web e.g. HTTP and REST. These work well for connecting heterogenous web-apps and services, so the idea is they can also be used to connect heterogenous things.

Web apps that we design and develop will not only need to send and receive data from web of things devices, but also potentially be accessed from them - if you thought responsive design for mobile apps was difficult try designing for persistance of vision displays, Google glass, Pebble etc.

IoT is not all machine to machine (M2M) interaction - there is much we can contribute to UI / UX design of IoT devices especially wearables

var five = require("johnny-five");
var last_temp = 0;
five.Board().on("ready", function(){
  // read temperature every 3 seconds
  var temp = new five.Sensor({
    pin:"A0", 
    freq:3000
  });
  temp.on("read", function(err, value){
    var cel = 
      (100*(value/1000)-50).toFixed(2);
    // update dashboard
    send_event('temp', {
      last:last_temp, 
      current:cel
    });
    last_temp = cel;
  });
});

https://www.npmjs.org/package/dashing-js
https://www.npmjs.org/package/johnny-five

Open Source Logo used under CC BY license
Open Hardware logo

One of my biggest concerns about the way that the Web of Things is shaping up is that many of the devices that currently exist or that we can imagine gather highly personal, contextual information, and I believe it is very important that individuals retain control over who has access to that information and how they can use it.

I think the solution is to look at open source, open hardware and open data movements. I love open source not only because using open source libraries and frameworks helps me to create better web apps, faster, but I love the culture of “let a thousand flowers bloom”. Having alternatives gives me freedom of choice over the tools that I use, and I can selectively customise and scrutinize them. But the thing I love most about the open source / hardware / data movements is the community, which drives innovation and establishes expectations about what I should be able to do with the software / hardware / data that I use. So even if I choose to use proprietary solutions, those closed options are better (than they might otherwise have been) because of the open alternatives that are available.

We’ve seen how what happens when vendors get in and create highly controlled, walled communities. Let’s not let that happen with IoT.

Building anOpen Web of Things

Building an
Open Web of Things