Rationality won't make you rich, or how to think about the Internet of Things

Last month I went to The Conference and listened to a lot of great presentations. There were three conference tracks, one of them dedicated to the Internet of Things. The idea that all things around us, even small everyday objects, at some point will become connected to the internet fascinates me a lot. We will start thinking about connectivity and internet like we do electricity—ie not at all. It will become a part of the invisible infrastructure that we take for granted, because without it our things feel broken and useless. 

According to calculations by Cisco, 50 billion devices will connected to the Internet by 2020. Top technology infrastructure companies like IBM, HP and Ericsson are investing big in the Internet of things. IBM envisions a smarter planet, Ericsson envisions the social web of things. 

But when I look at these visions I get the feeling something is missing—the consumer. Well, she's there, but always in a passive role. These visions are more about automation and efficiency. An exemplifying scenario can go something like this one, from Cisco: Imagine your morning meeting was pushed back X minutes, and your car knows there has been an accident on your driving route causing a Y minute detour; this is communicated to your alarm clock which allows you Z extra minutes of sleep and signals to your coffee maker to turn on the appropriate minutes later. Or, from Ericsson: You call your wife on your way home in the car, asking what she wants for dinner. When you arrive home the oven has calculated with precision the time it should turn itself on and at what temperature, depending on the groceries you got from the store. I'm sure these are plausible scenarios, but I don't think the killer apps of IoT will be the connected car or Internet-oven. 

I'm much more interested in big questions like: What will be the iBeer moment of Internet of things? What will be the Farmville of connected devices? These are the seemingly silly applications that always pop up in the wake of new technological possibilities. The simple, cheap, entertaining stuff. Humans are a curious species, and we don't always make rational decisions. As Russell Davies writes in a great article in Think Quarterly:"The most exciting innovations will not be the expected stuff like consumer electronics, air quality monitoring or the dreaded Internet fridge. It’ll be bottom-up innovation, when we stick some intelligence and connectivity in our saltcellars, our picture frames and our hats. Not because we have an overwhelming reason to do so but because we might as well, because it’s getting easier. The most original innovations spring from mucking about, not from thinking hard." 

So when someone talks to you about the Internet of Things, don't think about connected cars, smart grid and highly energy efficient homes – think Skål, Sniff and Glowcaps! Think Withings, Sifteo Cubes andBotanicalls! That's where the really interesting new media opportunities are. When things become connected, information will become a material. And who better to design that information layer than media who for generations have practiced the art of storytelling? 

See also:

MoMA – Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects
http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2011/talktome/
http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1080

design mind – The Connectivity Issue
http://designmind.frogdesign.com/magazine/the-connective-issue/

Russell Davies – Practical Magic 
http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/quarterly/innovation/practical-magic.html

Mike Kuniavsky – Designing Smart Things: User Experience Design for Networked Devices
http://orangecone.com/archives/2011/08/ux_week_2011_de.html

Top 10 Internet of Things Developments of 2010 – part I & II
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_10_internet_of_things_developments_of_2010.php
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_10_internet_of_things_developments_of_2010p2.php