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Internet of Things for Dummies

Former Member

A new, more visual and easy-to-read issue of the comic book ‘Internet of Things!” (IoT) is designed to inform politicians, the general public and business managers about the potential of IoT. The new book is a business edition.

A business edition of the “Internet of Things!” comic book has just been published. The new issue of the comic book targets people that may never have heard of the subject before. More specifically, it targets politicians, the general public and business managers who might have a stake in IoT. The comic book gives the target audience a broad understanding of the advantages and potential risks associated with IoT.image

 

– We have worked hard to make the comic book easy to read. We have reduced the amount of text and made it more visual instead – yet without compromising on the contents and the message it sets out to deliver about IoT, says Mirko Presser, author of the “Internet of Things!” and head of research and innovation at the Alexandra Institute.

 

Download the Internet of Things Comic Book from the IoT Comic Book website.

image

Target group must know the potential
The Internet of Things is a term for how the Internet expands as more and more devices are connected. This increases the application potential and the size of the Internet and related technologies.

 

– We want to help politicians and business managers to understand how the future technologies work and what their potential is. This will enable them to make the right decisions and hopefully invest more money in research and innovation, Mirko Presser explains.

 

A field undergoing constant development
– The Internet of Things is a field that evolves constantly. We therefore have to make updates all the time. The essence of the book remains the same but for each new edition, we will add new scenarios and relevant interviews, Mirko Presser says.

 

–  The business edition includes two new interviews with Rasmus Blom from Grundfos and Stefan Faber from Bosch. They both come from companies that, by tradition, have developed products that are considered good if the company never hears from the user again. Now they have shifted from product-oriented to service-oriented thinking where frequent contact with users is essential. Furthermore, we have added an analysis feature, to mention but a few things.

Next issue to focus on innovation
The sequel of the IoT business edition will be a new version of the original comic book published in the spring of 2011. Focus will be on innovation and new scenarios resulting from that. We do not know yet when it will be published, Mirko Presser says.image

 

The IoT Forum is to be in charge of a major part of the publishing process from now on to ensure coherence and consistence in future editions.

 

Read more about the Alexandra Institute’s activities.

  • Mirko,

    Interesting initiative in order to make the IoT simple and accessible for all. Thanks for sharing image

    Mike

  • in reply to Former Member

    Mirko

    Great to see an honest answer .... well done sir.

     

    While I have no doubt that more and more will have access to the wireless/wired world, and machine to machine communications will increase, it would be nice to see the 'useful' applications.

     

    One aspect of 'RISKS' is hacking, or inappropriate use of the technology.

    We've heard tales of web-camera's being accessed, but we don't hear of the hacking incidents because they are tend to be embarrasing to either the individual or organisation.

     

    I work in an environment where the operational network is kept away from the internet .. for obvious reasons, but when you start introducing IoT, how exactly do you do that?

    Many of the MTM protocols and methods assume you have an internet connection, but what if you want it separate for other reasons.?

    If you want your product to be truly an IoT then having a common or published method of communication is essential, but that gives the would be hacker the method to attack your device, or capture the data.

     

    If you look at Android apps (not picking on them) there are many that offer xyz, but they usually also serve up advertising and do all sorts of other things ... so how is the purchaser/end user to know if his/her bandwidth is being consumed or open to these unwanted features.?

     

    Then there is 'data mining' where the data is collected and then either used to bombard you, sold or even used without your knowledge.

    e.g You have this IoT device monitoring your power consumption and distributing the result to some cloud service somewhere.

    After a week or so, its not hard to pick the patterns of that household ..when they rise, go to bed, go to work, come home, if they work 9-5 mon-friday, or something else.

    This means that anyone doing cold calling by phone has a better chance if they call 6pm, or worse a thief has a good chance that no-one is home after 9am.

     

    In essence security isn't just from hackers, but mis-use of the data as well.

     

    I'll have a look at your comic, and I'm happy for you to use some of the examples.

    I can't promise a lot due to too many other tasks that have been put off until they've reached the deadline ... and it's caught up.

     

     

    Mark

  • Oh, that accident response one makes me laugh...   The Neds will love it.. It'll take them all of five minutes to work out which vehicles have it and work out a way to trigger it by chucking bricks at the car, jumping on it or whatever. Emergency services waste time on hoax calls when they could be helping people who really need help, taxpayer foots the bill unless they find a way to charge the vehicle owner.....  Vehicle owner probably ends up with a bill for the damage to the car while the neds were trying to set it off.  It won't take long for the vehicle manufacturer to lose sales due to people avoiding buying a car that includes something so stupid.  Even if they sell a version of the same model that doesn't include the system the neds will find that out by bashing lumps out of the car while trying to set it off rather than reading the brochure..

     

    Problems with a lot of this stuff comes with feature creep.. If you have geo-location to pinpoint the accident, you also have complete movement tracking available.. I can hear the politicians salivating already image

     

    The other downside is that the only way to make continued stream of cash out of these things is to have it locked down to some subscription service you provide. I've already talked to a lot of people who are concerned over the (current) high cost of some of these devices and whether it'll continue to work when it's manufacturer goes out of business.

     

    DAB has it right, lots of extra data being made available and being analysed for purposes the original designers were too naive to consider is a real concern.

  • I tend to agree more an more about this as well. We leaving ourselves open to a lot of vulnerabilities. Often we innovate without looking at the long term consequences. Well it is in our nature. We are afraid of being eaten by a shark, but a BMI of over 25 is less of an immediate issue to many.

     

    The original version of the comic book as well as the special edition tried to have some of these elements taken into account, but not nearly as highlighted as the shiny scenarios (have a look at the original edition in the foreword as well as pages 13 or 25). Unfortunately we lost it a bit in the business edition... The business edition focused on that top bit of the iceberg. But I think managing all the other aspects is what we should highlight more.

     

    IMG-20140708-WA0001.jpg

     

    Maybe the next edition should focus on the risks - could be an idea. If you could provide some scenario/content ideas via this forum - maybe we can pick them up in the next edition - the RISK edition - credit will of course be given.

     

    Thanks for reading - and discussing!

  • I agree....

    There is far too much  "oooh look we have this new technology, now what can we use it for".

    Then a bunch of 'dreamers' get together and find uses that might benefit society, but generally add nothing.

     

    How neat you have a machine that tells you there has been some sort of fender bender.

    It offers the authorities nothing important like the number of casualties or if some are hurt, some are dead or anything else.

     

    Next you'll be wanting to tell the manufacturer the airbag went off so they can schedule it for a service.

     

    The security (or lack of) is the one thing that will ensure these are treated with the concern they should have.

    I'm also concerned over the amount of RF pollution being dumped into the air by this IOT fad.

    It means genuine uses are going to be comprimised just because someone is too lazy to walk to their letterbox.

     

    Sorry but those are my thoughts, and I'm open to be shown my errors.

    Mark