It's not a fancy headline, but Angela Guess is on the money: the lack of uniform standards for the IoT (Internet of Things) is the problem. Guess's piece is an entree to a longer article from the Smart Data Collective, but she's gone straight to the big issue.
She's also chosen a key quote, which I'll cut even shorter here: “For example, if a company that develops smart clothing is different from a company that develops smart home technology, the chances of their products communicating are minimal.”
That's exactly how data fragmentation evolves. Organizations do exactly what's right for their own purposes, including defining their own data sets. But when they join an ecosystem – a larger system of collaborating entities – they run into problems sharing data.
If we're fated to repeat history, then the IoT will be a mess of islands, stitched together with bridges and ferry services. But... the whole idea of the IoT is that it's a pervasive, all-embracing intelligent environment. So the old idea of islands coming together to create a larger ecosystem is all wrong. The IoT is an ecosystem already. And it's an inherently open ecosystem, just because no one can predict what types of devices and kinds of data will join as the ecosystem evolves.
The IoT needs to be built on standards right from the get-go. Otherwise, what we'll get is some expensive, throwaway pathfinder projects that maybe demonstrate some capabilities and help inform business models – but which also impede the development of the envisioned ecosystem.
The smart clothing / smart home example is instructive. Does a clothing company want to compete in home management? Or vice versa? Probably not. But both companies want to collaborate. Your clothes can negotiate with your heating system about ambient temperature control. Your house can find where you left your clothes – and so on. Collaboration is a win-win for these companies. So they need to start with data standards. This holds for everyone who wants to play. Dataversity
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