IoT: the integrated digital revolution

Excellent article by Glen Martin on Forbes comparing the exposure of people to Internet of Things applications and opportunities to the Centennial Exposition of 1876, America’s first World’s Fair.

Having potential developers, users and investors aware of IoT applications can be the trigger to an integrated digital revolution where connected hardware and software can merge onto our everyday lives, making the Internet of Things as disruptive as the Industrial Revolution.

“Today, stable wireless platforms, standardized software interface components and cheap, widely available sensors have made the connection of virtually every device — from coffee pots to cars — not only possible; they have made it certain.”

Internet of Everything goes far beyond the development of new consumer products. Open source hardware and software already are allowing the easy integration of programatic interfaces with everything from weather stations to locomotives. Large, complicated systems — water delivery infrastructure, power plants, sewage treatment plants, office buildings — will be made intelligent by these software and sensor packages, allowing real-time control and exquisitely efficient operation. Manufacturing has been made frictionless, development costs are plunging, and new manufacturing-as-a-service frameworks will create new business models and drive factory production costs down and production up.

Source: How The Internet Of Things Is More Like The Industrial Revolution Than The Digital Revolution