When will executives understand the impact of Internet of Things?

This blog originally appeared on Sogeti’s technology trendlab called ViNT – Vision Inspiration Navigating Trends

The 21st of February I joined the ‘Internet of Everything’ tweetchat from Cisco. The event was hosted by Brian Solis – @BrianSolis and everyone who joined could ask questions about the Internet of Everything to Dave Evans – @DavetheFuturist. Dave Evans is Cisco’s Chief Futurist and writes great articles about the Internet of Everything. More information about the event you can find here on Cisco’s website. There were interesting views on the ‘Internet of Everything’ and related matters. Some of them I want to discuss in this blog post using Storify.

1. What “is” the Internet of Everything?

.@davethefuturist What “is” the Internet of Everything? #WhyIOE — Brian Solis (@briansolis) February 21, 2013

IoE brings together people, process, data and things to make networked connections more relevant and valuable than ever before. #WhyIOE — Dave Evans (@DaveTheFuturist) February 21, 2013

IoE will both create new value and redistribute value based on how well companies take advantage of the oppt. that IoE represents… #WhyIOE — Dave Evans (@DaveTheFuturist) February 21, 2013

Four key pillars to IoE – people, things, process, data. #WhyIOE— Dave Evans (@DaveTheFuturist) February 21, 2013

One of the first question was: “What exactly ‘is’ the Internet of Everything? Internet of Everything is all about networked connections which will be more valuable than ever before. A Internet of Everything will create new value and redistribute value based on how well companies take advantage. When companies can track their activities and reduce cost and waste it will really be a advantage on their competitors. Companies can reduce cost in make products or deliver services to customers and companies. Products can be produced cheaper or with more added value than ever before. When companies realize this I think search terms about the Internet of things/ everything will be more hot then Facebook and social media is now… Here is how Cisco defines their 4 key pillars of Internet of Everything. In the Tweetchat there was a question about what pillar matters the most. We really have to realize that we must not focus on things, data or processes, but on us human. Technology is here to support humans, to make our lives easier.

2. What is difference between Internet of Things and the Internet of Everything?

.@davethefuturist How does @ciscosystems view the difference between Internet of Things and the Internet of Everything? #WhyIOE — Brian Solis (@briansolis) February 21, 2013

IoE builds on the foundation of IoT, by … #WhyIOE — Dave Evans (@DaveTheFuturist) February 21, 2013

 … adding network intelligence that allows convergence, orchestration, and visibility across previously disparate systems. #WhyIOE — Dave Evans (@DaveTheFuturist) February 21, 2013

The following question was about logical sequence. There are a lot of terms and definitions on the same trend. Here’s a short explanation of two of them. Internet of Things is about monitoring connected devices that we can adjust real time when needed. Reasons to adjust could be to reduce waste for example. The Internet of Everything is much further ahead of us than the Internet of Things. Every offline object will be connected to the digital world and there will be data on every object in the world. Trees, shoes, bricks and everything you can name will have a tag or an IP address etc. Chief futurist Dave Evans of Cisco said in this context: “With more than 99% of things not yet connected, we are just beginning the journey”. So when we are trying to make the definitions visual we can say. Internet of things is the start of this journey and the Internet of Everything is the end of this journey.

3. What will happen when things not only register & send data, but start to sense, think and act?

@briansolis @davethefuturist What will happen when things not only register & send data, but start to sense, think and act? 1/2 — Sander Duivestein (@duivestein) February 21, 2013

@briansolis @davethefuturist IoT becomes selfaware? A global mind? Technological singularity? 2/2 — Sander Duivestein (@duivestein) February 21, 2013

@duivestein – a digital nervous system for the planet will emerge. A new way to sense and manage our world… #WhyIOE — Dave Evans (@DaveTheFuturist) February 21, 2013

@davethefuturist You mean like a sort of hyve mind? But who controls it? And what about tech. unemployment (=Race against the Machine)? — Sander Duivestein (@duivestein) February 21, 2013

@duivestein No, not a hive mind, but a “6th sense” if you will. Our mind/s, still in “control” but with a lot more “data” to make decisions. — Dave Evans (@DaveTheFuturist) February 21, 2013

The next question was about artificial intelligence. Dave believes that  a digital nervous system will emerge in the near future. This digital nervous system will not be in control because we as humans will still be in control. It will work sort of like a 6th sense and not like a hive mind. So the prediction is that we will be in control but what will happen when we are not…?

The Internet of Everything is not the only trend a lot of people are talking about these days. Currently everyone is also talking about Big Data. But let me ask you a question: how ‘big’ is Big Data really when we look at this Internet of Everything prediction by Cisco about the number of connected objects in 2020?

I agree directly when you would say that it is only an prediction. But when we perceive these numbers as an indication, try to imagine how big ‘big data’ is really going to be if we indeed connect that number objects. When everyone has adopted the Internet of things/ everything and there are tons of connected devices we will look back and talk about the current Big Data era as we now do about 1Kb.

Find these and more great conversations of this event in my Storify summary.

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