In case you missed it, old friend Christopher Dorobek put together a great (in all modesty, LOL …) panel today for his “DorobekINSIDER” series on GovLoop about how the Internet of Things will transform government. I’ll try to summarize it in a later post, but you can listen in here!
Join me for GovLoop discussion Wednesday about how the IoT will transform government
Hi! I’ll be joining old friend Chris Dorobek for his “Dorobek Live” discussion on GovLoop next Wednesday to talk about how the Internet of Things is changing government. The discussion will take place from 2-3p ET (Sign-up information here: http://goo.gl/V6BPnW). Before hand, you might want to read the best piece I’ve seen about this transformation, The Coming of Age of the Internet of Things in Government. Be there or be square!
Libelium’s Alicia Asín Pérez: crafting an IoT leader from the ground up!
Any time you run into a leading IoT engineer who says she draws inspiration from the early NYC skyscrapers (Why? “..Most of them were built during the Great Depression and make me think that in big crisis like the one we are living there are also the greatest opportunities for creating amazing things.”) you know you’re in for some outside-the-box thinking!
Alicia Asín Pérez of Libelium
That’s the case with Libelium’s Alicia Asín Pérez, who I had a chance to interview just before she was to leave for this year’s Mobile World Congress, where Libelium unveiled its new Smart Water sensors, the latest addition to the eight-year old company’s impressive list of IoT sensors.
What impresses me the most about the company is how Asín and co-founder/CTO David Gascón have pursued their vision of an open-source system (their Waspmote platform “sends any sensors’ data using any communication protocol to any information system so that anyone can play in the IoT”) without compromise from when they started the company.
After attending the Universidad de Zaragoza, the young engineers decided to enter the decidedly un-cool field of hardware, not app design.
They didn’t want to get trapped into serving only one industry vertical (at present they’re serving smart cities, smart water, smart metering, smart environment, security and emergencies, logistics, industrial control, smart agriculture, smart animal farming, home automation, and ehealth. Any areas they’re not serving?), so they refused to deal with VCs, bootstrapping the company before the days of crowdsourcing. They even appeared on a quiz show for entrepreneurs to get cash, and were prepared to head to Hollywood quiz shows (Asín knows a lot about a lot of subjects, LOL!) if need be.
Libelium is intent about focusing on open source solutions, walking their talk to the point of even using Linux computers.
They also get it about one of my “Essential Truths” of the IoT, that it “democratizes innovation.” On one hand, Libelium has partnered with major firms such as IBM (with the “Internet Starter Kit”), and, on the other, 30% of its revenues come from its work with the “Maker Movement,” through its “Cooking Hacks” division, which includes:
- +4000 products for DIY projects
- Waspmote starter kits
- Step-by step-tutorials to get started
- A community forum
Asin sounds like a revolutionary with her call for “democratizing the technology of the Internet of Things,” and speaks proudly of how Libelium quickly created a Radiation Sensor Board used by an ad-hoc network of activists who documented radiation levels after the Fukushima accident. Speaking to Postscapes, she emphasized that while IoT projects by major companies are important, it’s equally important to use the IoT to empower individuals:
“When you are in front of such a revolution, you can neglect individuals. It is a big mistake thinking about the IoT players as big companies or just companies. If we look at the general sociopolitical situation, at the citizen movements all across the globe, we see that individuals are just claiming more transparency and not depending on governments and big companies for accessing data: people want Open Data, Open Source, Open Hardware, Open Funding… Because of that, we see projects like Safecast for detecting radiation levels in Fukushima or Air Quality Egg in the Netherlands. People want to do things on their own and are finding support in all the crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and companies backing open hardware that allows them to access inexpensive technology. For example, we just launched a kit to experiment with eHealth and we have already sold more than 1,000 units. People are being more creative and innovative than ever, and everyone needs tools for doing that. Those ‘tools’ are sensors and providing them is our vision.” (my emphasis).
It’s too early in the IoT’s evolution to predict the ultimate winners, but I suspect that Libelium’s passion for open systems, its technical expertise at creating a growing array of sensors, and its ability to partner with both big and small firms will help it prosper over the long haul.
Follow-up: Winners in Postscapes’ annual best-of-the-IoT contest
Following up on my recent post on my favorite nominees for the 2013 Postscapes best-of-the-IoT contest, here are the actual winners. What do you think??
Best quick intro to the IoT that I’ve seen!
Following up on my last post, I’ve found what I think is the best quick intro to the Internet of Things!
“Internet of Things,” released today by the Center for Data Innovation (hadn’t heard of them! BTW, they also get points in my book for covering XBRL, the magic potion for data…) is a quick read: it has short intros to most of the major consumer-oriented areas affected by the IoT, from healthcare to home automation, combined with two examples for each of those topics. I hadn’t heard of some of the examples (thanks, authors Daniel Castro and Jordan Misra!), although most are frequently cited ones ranging from the Nest thermostat to the Vitality GlowCap. All in all, they’ll show almost any skeptic that the IoT is already a reality and that it will change their life!
The report concludes with brief policy recommendations for government and business alike:
- (for government agencies) lead by example, i.e., include funding for sensors in bridge projects, etc. Yea (you listening, Obama Administration?).
- reduce barriers to data sharing (this harkens back to my Data Dynamite book: data gains value by being shared!).
- give consumers access to their data (again, something I wrote about in Data Dynamite).
- avoid inundating consumers with notices (a fine line, since they need to be informed, in plain English, about how their data will be used).
- regulate the use of data, not the collection (in line with Mercatus Center’s advice)
All in all, a nice intro to the IoT!
BTW: Thanx to ol’ friend Pete O’Dell for turning me on to this report!
White House recognizes IoT with Smart America Challenge
I’ve been critical of the Obama Administration in the past (except for the FTC, which is increasingly active in the field) for ignoring the Internet of Things.
Now there’s news that things are changing — slightly.
The White House has announced the SmartAmerica Challenge to build several IoT “test beds” by next April. It will hold a workshop Dec. 12th to kick off the project.
The goal:
“The SmartAmerica Project is bringing together organizations with cyber-physical systems (CPS) technology, programs and test beds to demonstrate the potential to improve safety, sustainability, efficiency, mobility, and overall quality of life. The purpose is to elevate awareness of the exciting opportunities possible through CPS and demonstrate what can be done today with cutting edge communication technology.”
The White House asks groups that want to be considered for the program to send one-page descriptions of their r & d “and include possible scenarios for the proposed interconnected set of disparate test beds and identify the potential benefits …. Actual test beds will help demonstrate the benefits and practical operational requirements of these interconnected disparate systems on a smaller scale and in real time – creating valuable experience and protocols for full-scale operation of such systems” (we may be dealing with cutting-edge tech here, but it’s reassuring that the program can still be described in Washington-speak …).
Evaluation criteria include: “Successfully interconnecting different test beds requires a high confidence network, seamless connectivity on many levels, robust security in any communication mode, and the use of open easy-to-use data architecture.”
“‘Our goal is to come out at the end of the day with two or more, but less than five, real substantial scenarios and commitments from the participants to build them,’ says Geoff Mulligan, an IoT veteran and one of two [White House Innovation] fellows working on the project.
“‘We want companies and researchers to roll up their sleeves, look at the various pieces of technology, and see what we can build out of it — like a stone soup,’ Mulligan told us [EE Times] in an email exchange.”
Oh, and they’re doing it on the cheap: the White House won’t provide any funding for the program.
Contrast that to China, which spends billions on IoT projects.
Oh well: it’s a (modest) start.
Tweeting the IoT Summit!
I Tweeted throughout the IoT Summit today, cryptic as the comments may have been. You can check them out at @data4all. Learned a great deal, and picked up several nice examples for the e-book I’m writing on implications for corporate management of the IoT!
Enjoy. Will do the same tomorrow!
More evidence U.S. lags dangerously behind EU on IoT privacy
There’s new confirmation that the U.S. remains dangerously behind the European Union on the twin issues of Internet of Things privacy and security. As I’ve warned before, especially in the context of the continued outrage over the NSA surveillance, if these issues aren’t solved collaboratively by the private sector and government, they threaten to derail the IoT express.
In her Stanford Masters thesis, I believe Mailyn (sic) Fidler accurately summarizes the US’s stance:
“The IoT in the United States is characterized by late but strong entry of companies to the market and by recent, but minimal, interest from the federal government. Specifically, the federal government views the IoT largely as part of the ongoing privacy and security discussion in Washington, D.C. Complicating analysis of the IoT in the United States is that the “Internet of Things” is not a generally recognized term. In the U.S., the IoT is viewed as a natural evolution of American innovation rather than as a unique field.”
http://m3.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/shrink_80_80/p/2/000/0dc/3bd/392d2fe.jpgFidler contrasts this lack of concern by the government to the EU, which, while also
Mailyn Fidler
viewing IoT privacy in the broader context of general privacy policy, has made IoT personal privacy and security a priority — more about that in a future post about the “Butler Project” report):
“The IoT has been a political priority for the European Union. Even with the recent recession, interest and funding in IoT enterprises has not slowed, and the EU has invested 70 million Euros in at least 50 research projects since 2008. In addition to the EU’s hopes that the IoT will bring economic benefits, particularly to small businesses and public institutions, the EU’s interest in the IoT reflects its concerns about who controls emerging technologies. Indeed, EU officials have stated an ambition to build an IoT ‘that will bring about clear advantages for Europe.’
However, despite the EU’s investments, a lack of legislative clarity, slow technical progress, and pressure from international strategic interactions threaten to slow EU efforts to develop a globally competitive, European-centric IoT.
The EU considers privacy a societal priority and has a history of regulating technologies to prevent privacy risks, as its Data Protection Directive indicates. The IoT is no different. The privacy risks the IoT presents, however, are discussed in the context of ongoing data protection reform in the EU. EU officials are debating how to author broad, technology-neutral guidance while, at the same time, many officials seem convinced that technology-specific guidance will be necessary. The EU’s political prioritization of the IoT fuels attempts at lobbying for IoT-specific regulation, as the myriad, overlapping attempts at IoT guidance demonstrate. The IoT’s advancement, then, is mired in this larger debate about the future of technology policy.”
Even with this greater focus, Fidler says the EU hasn’t made as much progress as might be hoped. Only 1 of the 33 2010 Cluster of European Research Projects on IoT explicitly investigated security, and, in a study the same year of IoT standards, only 2 or 175 explicityly investigated security — and none have addressed IoT cybersecurity.
In other words, they ain’t great, but we’re worse (in fact, among US agencies, only the FTC seems to give a fig about the IoT). Pathetic.
Fidler’s report also covers China. You can bet that privacy and security aren’t high on their priority list, LOL.
The EU, while perhaps lagging behind on IoT technology, may get the last laugh on the privacy and security issues. As we’ve seen with successful suits against Microsoft and Google on other Internet issues, the EU has prevailed in the past on questions of privacy and security, and, according to Fidler, it may happen again:
“The EU, faced with the IoT approaches of the United States and China—arguably the leading centers of technological innovation—may stand behind its social parameters and emphasis on new international governance mechanisms as a way of asserting alternative power. With such laws and institutions, economic activities involving the EU and the IoT would have to conform to EU-based standards. The EU, thus, compensates for technological disadvantages in innovation through social and governance parameters. Similarly, the United States and China are seeking to maintain or create their technical edge in new cyber technologies by encouraging unique standards regimes or more aggressive development environments.”
If so, I say bully for them! Someone has to stand up for the individual in this brave new world, and it looks as if the Obama Administration isn’t taking the challenge. Shame!
Fidler concludes that the geopolitical competition among the U.S., E.U., and China may have negative effects on the IoT’s overall growth if it results in incompatible standards:
“This geopolitical competition at such an early stage of the IoT’s development could create international interoperability problems, with negative political, economic, and social consequences. How governments and societies navigate the technological and political aspects of the emergence of the IoT will determine if the IoT’s benefits will be ubiquitously available or if the Internet’s foray into the realm of things will be interrupted.”
FADE TO Youngbloods singing “Get Together”…..
et. al.: Head Start cuts due to sequester
When I relaunched this blog, I promised that it would occasionally touch on non-Internet of Things, non-big data issues. So here goes.
Instead of going into the Army, I started my career as a Conscientious Objector (something of which I’m immensely proud — as proud as I am of my son the Army Lt. Colonel!), working for several years as a Head Start day care teacher. That was terribly satisfying: I really felt I made a difference in the young lives of poor kids, getting them off to a good start in the education system. I hope it made a difference in their adult lives.
That’s why I was terribly disappointed to see that among the real effects of the sequester — yes, it is affecting real programs that serve real people — is forced cutbacks in Head Start programs across the U.S. More than 70,000 kids will be denied Head Start slots unless the cuts are restored.
This result of the disgusting (I’m not going to mince words) partisan gridlock in Washington is simply unacceptable! As a country, our children are our future, and, make no mistake about it, we will all pay, one way or the other: either for good Head Start programs now, or later, for low-productivity, poverty, and crime. Call your representative now, and demand that the cuts be restored.
Shodan: maybe this will get people to take IoT privacy/security seriously!
Wired has an article this week about Shodan, the “IoT search engine,” which I hope scares the bejesus out of enough companies and government officials that they’ll finally realize how absolutely critical it is that we make security and privacy THE top public policy/corporate management priorities regarding the IoT.
Shodan’s homepage proudly proclaims that it will let you “EXPOSE ONLINE
Shodan
DEVICES: webcams, routers, power plants, iPhones, wind turbines, refrigerators (there’s that meme again!), VoIP phones.” Anyone out there who isn’t covered by that list? If so, stay in your cave!
As for everyone else, maybe you’d be more properly attracted by the CNN story about Shodan several months ago: “Shodan: the scariest search engine on the Internet.” Got your attention yet?
Here’s what Shodan can do, according to CNN:
“It’s stunning what can be found with a simple search on Shodan. Countless traffic lights,security cameras, home automation devices and heating systems are connected to the Internet and easy to spot.
Shodan searchers have found control systems for a water park, a gas station, a hotel wine cooler and a crematorium. Cybersecurity researchers have even located command and control systems for nuclear power plants and a particle-accelerating cyclotron by using Shodan.”
Command and control systems for nuclear power plants? Sheesh!
Reminds me that while the Obama Administration remains abysmally ignorant of the IoT (and, remember, I’m a fan of them in general …) one official who was all in was former CIA Director David Petraeus:
Sufficiently alarmed yet?
Let me be clear: I am convinced that security and privacy are the two issues that have the greatest potential to stop the Internet of Things dead in its tracks — and I felt that way even before Edward Snowden was a household name.
Snowden, ooops, Shodan, has revealed shocking indifference to security on the part of countless organizations (and, BTW, don’t forget that 85% of the U.S.’s critical infrastructure — power plants, pipelines, chemical factories, etc., is in private hands):
“A quick search for ‘default password‘ reveals countless printers, servers and system control devices that use ‘admin’ as their user name and ‘1234’ as their password. Many more connected systems require no credentials at all — all you need is a Web browser to connect to them.
In a talk given at last year’s Defcon cybersecurity conference, independent security penetration tester Dan Tentler demonstrated how he used Shodan to find control systems for evaporative coolers, pressurized water heaters, and garage doors.
He found a car wash that could be turned on and off and a hockey rink in Denmark that could be defrosted with a click of a button. A city’s entire traffic control system was connected to the Internet and could be put into ‘test mode’ with a single command entry. And he also found a control system for a hydroelectric plant in France with two turbines generating 3 megawatts each.
This is as scary as the Vanity Fair article last year about how a miscreant could use an iPhone to kill you!
The 85% of critical infrastructure in private hands number should be a stark reminder: the only way we can possibly address IoT privacy and security is through collaborative government/private sector action — with strong involvement by you and me.
If you are involved in the IoT in any way, you simply can’t duck this issue!
