Skype talk given at the first Internet of Things meetup in Wellington on November 4th 2014. http://www.meetup.com/Wellington-Internet-of-Things-IoT-Meetup/events/208303962/

1. THE (IOT) REVOLUTION WILL
NOT BE TELEVISED
Why internet of things meetups are important
& what you can bring to a global conversation.
@iotwatch

2. About
Director of designswarm a consultancy focusing
on strategy, policy and building communities in
the internet of things.
Former founder & CEO of Tinker London the first
distributor of the Arduino
Former partner of design partnership RIG London

4. What I will cover
A bit of history.
Why meeting is important.
Using what you have.

5. What is the Internet of Things?
A new generation of everyday objects which have
embedded connectivity and a digital component.

6. Human factors & ergonomics…
“The study of designing equipment and devices
that fit the body and its cognitive abilities”

7. Human Computer Interaction (1983)
“The study, planning, design & use of interaction
between people and computers ”

8. Interaction Design (1988)
“The practice of designing interactive digital
products, environments, systems & services”

9. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, CERN (1989)
“In practice, it is useful for the system to be aware
of the generic types of links between items […]
and the types of nodes (people, things,
documents) without imposing any limitations.”

10. Trojan Room Coffee Pot (1993-2001)
The world’s first webcam, using an Acorn
computer it allowed people across the building to
avoid pointless trips to the coffee room if there
was no coffee left.

11. Kevin Ashton (2001)
Kevin Ashton coined the term while at Auto-ID
Center at MIT meant it in the context of RFID.
Now it implies all the technologies that allow
products to be connected online. (wifi, GSM, BT,
radio,etc)

12. Early products (2005-)
Ambient Devices, Violet & Vitality were companies
that led the way early on in the US & France.

13. New Media Art & early wearables
Wearables at the time was a very academic &
artistic field where experiments were presented at
SIGGRAPH conference every year.

14. Arduino (2005)
An open source hardware and software electronics
learning tool. The starting point the Maker
movement.

15. Sparked a maker movement

16. And a whole industry…

17. …of inventors
The Arduino innovated by starting with arts &
design students who were making visually
appealing responsive objects. Later they would
connect them to the web and social media
platforms.

18. Boosted by crowdfunding

19. Incubators too

20. Makers turn into markets
Kati London at ITP designed Botanicalls in 2006.

21. Remote plant watering is everywhere

22. Connectivity requirements are
everywhere

23. SmartStones / Nivea armband
Fitness & health

24. Security

25. Glanceables

26. Education

27. Retail

28. Energy

29. Play

30. Build a story

31. Cook

32. Hardware
Connectivity
Battery life
Standards
Privacy
Security
But there are many challenges

33. And insurance products are coming
An unlikely fanbase for the Internet of Things are
insurance companies now building flexible,
responsive premiums.

35. User experience hell
“the warnings the devices emit — beeps that
become more persistent as the due date for the
loan payment approaches — are seen by some
borrowers as more degrading than helpful”

36. The London iot meetup
Started in November 2011 (40 members)
Now 3.2K members
1-2 monthly newsletters
1 meetup a month
2 showcases a year

37. The Importance of meeting
IOT is an unnatural meeting of different industries
& silos:
• Product Design
• User experiences
• Manufacturing
• Retail
• Embedded software
• Front end design
• Big Data analytics
• Startups
• Academics

38. A diverse community
Map at designswarm.com/services/communities

39. Active collaborations
Kemuri is an elderly tracking device and founder
Leonard Anderson met his co-founders at the
meetup. He now has £25K of funding to
prototype the product further.
kemuri.co.uk

40. A place to get feedback
We don’t really document the meetups well. This
means startups get early feedback and learn to
answer hard questions.

41. A throw-away term
Internet of things might move on to become
connected devices but the opportunities,
challenges and need for a multi-disciplinary
approach are the same.

42. Consortiums

43. Locally-grown standards

44. The space for corporates is minimal
• Incubators
• Infrastructure
• Device-based services

45. The space for startups is huge
The internet of things is only as valuable as its
applications. It’s like talking about electricity
without lightbulbs and toasters.
Invention of end-user applications that work, that
people want to integrate in their lives can only
really come from small groups of people willing to
quite their jobs and do something new.

46. Try things that work locally but think
globally.
Agricultural monitoring
Sports
Environmental monitoring
Consumer products

47. Local people I know (you know more
I’m sure)
Philip Lindsay / rancidbacon.com
Anne Galloway / digitalculturelab.org
Marc Pesce / moorescloud.com
David ten Have / Makey Makey (ex Ponoko)

48. Good luck.
www.designswarm.com
alex@designswarm.com
@designswarm
@iotwatch
@iotlondon