THE IOT:

A REVOLUTION
IS UNDER WAY
T.J. MCLEISH

Much (perhaps too much) has been

written about the Internet of Things
or Internet of Everything. But the idea
itself has been around for decades.
Marshall McLuhan described the content of a light bulb in Understanding
Media: The Extensions of Man in
1964. Decades later, Mark Weiser
described physical manifestations and
uses of ubiquitous computing in The
Computer for the 21st Century.
However, the actual technology to
make the IoT practical and affordable
has only been around for a few years.
Together, the advent of simple communications protocols (like Bluetooth
low energy); the continued evolution
of processing power, speed, size, and
energy efficiency; advances in machine
learning and management of vast real-time data streams; the proliferation
of prototyping platforms easing IoT
development; and the ubiquity of
smartphones driving down the cost
of technology have all created the
opportunity to act on those decades of
pent-up ideas.
That acting on these ideas is relatively
easy shifts who can act. One doesnt
need a big lab with armies of engineers
and mountains of money. Crowdfunding (like Kickstarter) has had a big
effect on what is being developed and
who is developing it. Numerous great
ideas, and several not so great, are being pursued. A revolution is under way.

A higher profile
The movement of big and visible companies into the IoT space has attracted
a great deal of attention. Apple, with its
recent launch of the Apple Watch, has
many people believing that wearables
are ready to go mainstream. The much
anticipated release of its IoT platform,
HomeKit, along with the first wave
of home products compatible with it,
suggests that Apple believes IoT to be
ready for the mainstream, as well.
Samsung acquired the IoT home
platform, SmartThings (launched on
Kickstarter in August, 2012) on August
14, 2014, and has committed $100
million in funding for the creation of
an open Internet of Things to which all
things are to be connected by the end
of 2020 (see Figure 1). Google acquired the home IoT innovator, Nest, on
January 13, 2014, for over $3 billion.

The most profound

technologies are
those that disappear.
They weave
themselves into the
fabric of everyday
life until they are
indistinguishable
from it.
- Mark Weiser

The Computer for the 21st

Century, 1991.

FIGURE01

Samsung & SmartThings

Samsung has committed $100M in funding for the creation of an open Internet
of Things to which all things are to be connected by 2020.

TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY

Facebook has Parse (2013), which

recently released a software development kit (SDK) for IoT development
(see Figure 2). Microsoft, Intel, Cisco,
Amazon, and Huawei are in the mix, as
well. In fact, it might even be easier to
list the companies that havent made a
claim on IoT.1

FIGURE02

Facebook & Parse

Parse is an SDK that connects hardware, such as the Arduino Yun microcontroller, with cloud-based databases. This would allow, for example, regular storing of
sensor readings or images from a security camera in the cloud.

Why all the fuss?

IoT is a new computing platform and
the expectations are that it will have
an impact similar to the introduction
of PCs in the 80s, the web in the
90s, and smartphones in the 00s.
The expectation is that it will transform
our world. How exactly? Well, the
hype today points to the Apple watch,
while reality points to the agricultural
industry (where exemplary investment
in IoT innovation is occurring). No one
is really sure of the full impact on business-to-consumer (B2C) interactions,
but everyone is getting ready and no
one wants to miss the boat.

ARDUINO
YUN

At SapientNitro, we consider the digital

ecosystems created by connected
IoT environments to be Story Systems
and platforms consisting of enabling
technologies, connections planning,
and systems thinking. The platforms are
essential to our Storyscaping approach.
However, big questions remain. How
does one design useful IoT services?
How does one then sell these services?
How does a brand exist in an IoT
service? Is there a place for contextual
advertising? Is there something better?

Cnet. Samsung snaps up SmartThings, embracing Internet of Things. http://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-snaps-up-smartthings-embracing-internet-of-things/.

TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY

Trends to watch

INSIGHTS AND LEARNING,

NOT AUTOMATION

Furthermore, as the number and diversity of devices proliferate, platforms will

have richer sources. Valuable insights
about your home and life are a marked
improvement from simply claiming
that you can control your home from
anywhere the current benchmark for
the connected home.

As we approach 5 billion connected

devices, each sending real-time data,
the ability to ingest and interpret that
data will place the emphasis on robust
insights and analytics on a huge scale.2
Quality, affordable analysis will become
more important. And were starting to
see firms respond.
One symptom is the shift in language
from automation to insights and
learning. Take, as an example,
Amazons Echo description: Always
Getting Smarter. Echo's brain is in the
cloud, running on Amazon Web Services so it continually learns and adds
more functionality over time. The more
you use Echo, the more it adapts to
your speech patterns, vocabulary, and
personal preferences.3 To a learned
house: Works with Nest. Its about
making your house a more thoughtful
and conscious home.4

We are also seeing new products and

services for IoT focused on analysis
and learning. Arrayent an IoT
platform that enables trusted consumer
brands to implement connected products and systems offers an insight
cloud. Similarly, Elgatos Eve claims
that consumers can gain insights that
help [them] improve [their] comfort, and
make [their] home a smarter place.

SERVICES, NOT JUST THINGS

Leaders in the space realize that the

IoT is not about things. It is about
services. Mark Kuniavsky of PARC calls
the new physical objects of the IoT
service avatars, shifting the emphasis
away from thing and onto service.
Simon King of IDEO describes an
increased physicality to brand expression. Brand expression lives as service in the connected environments we
are building all around us. An observation from CES (Consumer Electronics
Show) 2015 is the shift in language
describing IoT offerings from home automation to insights and learning, which
is far more provocative and useful.
As the IoT matures into a robust
platform for the development of new
services and products, we expect to
see the rise of apps and app platforms.
Similar to a decade ago with smartphones, the savviest companies are
already trying to offer useful services on
top of their things. From IFTTT (which
stands for if this, then that and is a
company focused on DIY automation
tools) to AT&Ts Digital Life platform,
applications which link data from multiple sources and provide great additional value will propagate.

Gartner. Gartner Says 4.9 Billion Connected Things Will Be in Use in 2015. http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/
id/2905717.

Amazon. Amazon Echo. http://www.amazon.com/oc/echo/.

Nest. Works with Nest. https://nest.com/works-with-nest/.

TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY

And just as smartphone creators did

not anticipate the incredibly diverse
range of applications for what is (oddly)
still called a phone, the range of applications built for the connected home
will surely be far beyond what we can
imagine now.

ALLEGIANCES, PARTNERS,
AND PLAYING WELL
TOGETHER

The inability of many devices to communicate with each other is an obstacle

for their widespread adoption. And
there are several solutions being
pursued.
Apples HomeKit and HealthKit follow
a model not unlike the brands mobile
app development model. To acquire
certification, your app must pass
Apples scrutiny, thus guaranteeing
high-quality and compatible apps for
these connected platforms.
Furthermore (and as we noted earlier),
Samsung has pledged that, by 2020,
every single product that it sells will be
connected to the IoT. Similarly, Nest
Labs has a growing network of strategic partners with whom it is collectively
building out compatibility, the resulting
products of which get the Works with
Nest certification.

PRIVACY

That machine learning is key to

services enabled by the IoT, and that
learning takes data and time (and a
machine likely in the cloud), raises
some privacy concerns around how
collected data is used and how the
learnings are shared with others. Weve
witnessed different privacy approaches
being followed.
Consumers have justifiably grown
sensitive to privacy concerns. When
Mattel announced that Hello Barbie
would be recording childrens conversations and storing them online,
serious concerns were raised about the
product.5 Indeed, the voice-recognizing
technology (ToyTalk) does record voice
as it is necessary to learn. And Mattel
clearly states, We do not use the
content of the Recordings to contact
children or for advertising purposes in
its privacy policy.6 But it is not easy to
remove suspicions.

Stop Mattels Hello Barbie Eavesdropping Doll. Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. http://org.salsalabs.com/
o/621/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=17347.

ToyTalk. Privacy Policy. https://www.toytalk.com/legal/privacy/.

TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY

Predictive behavior,
enabled by machine
learning, is the key
to business models
of most B2C IoT
products.
- Mark Kuniavsky,

Principal Scientist, PARC

Apple approaches this more stringently

in their HomeKit and HealthKit connected platforms. HomeKit apps must have
the primary purpose of providing home
automation services, must provide a privacy policy, must not use data gathered
for advertising or other use-based data
mining, and must limit the use of data
gathered to improving the user experience and/or the apps performance in
providing home automation functionality. Similarly, HealthKit apps may not
use the user data gathered from the
HealthKit API for third party disclosure, for health-related human subject
research for advertising or use-based
data mining purposes (other than for
improving health), or for the purpose of
health research.6
Nest Labs policy is more porous. They
pledge to be transparent about the
different types of information [they]
collect and how [they] use [the information]. And to ask your permission
before sharing your Personally Identifiable Information with third parties for
purposes other than to provide Nests
services, and to do so only when [they]
think [the third parties] will provide you
with a welcome additional service.7
SmartThings, on the other hand, welcomes appropriate advertisers, as seen
in this example from their privacy policy:
For example, we might share with our

Advertisers the fact that a moisture

sensor that you have connected to our
Services has detected a flood in order
to show you ads or offers for local
plumbing services.8
The varying success of these different
approaches will have a big impact on
the kinds of services IoT enables. How
do we use machine learning to discover
new things? What is the line between
privacy violations and good advice from
a service? How much trust do people
have in the brands they are adopting,
and how is useful information shared
back to the user inside and outside of
the system? These are all significant
questions that remain to be answered.

Conclusion
The evolution of the IoT is perhaps the
most transformative trend of the next
decade. As billions of devices connect
to networks and begin talking to each
other, vast new potential is unlocked.
The IoT will continue to disrupt entire
industries and change how businesses,
cities, and homes work. For advertisers
and marketers, this ubiquitous computing platform offers a greater chance to
get closer to our customers, and also
allows us to offer personalized stories
that better engage them.

Apple Developer. App Store Review Guidelines. https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/.

Nest. Privacy Statement. https://nest.com/legal/privacy-statement/.

SmartThings. Privacy. http://www.smartthings.com/privacy/.

TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY

T.J. McLeish
Director of Experience Technology and Emerging Analytics,
SapientNitro Chicago
tmcleish@sapient.com
With his 15 years of experience in ubiquitous computing
and the built environment, T.J. provides expertise in
advanced analytics, data visualization, data modeling,
and measurement to guide innovation and design in the
digital/physical world.

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