The more I see regarding developments in the world of interactive networked technologies, the more I am convinced that the future of learning is inextricably tied to the Internet of Things.
The Internet of Things has been discussed in computing circles for years. It refers to the wireless, self-configuring network that can be established between and among objects of all kinds using wireless technologies including WiFi, Bluetooth, RFID and GPS. It parallels the current network of addressable web pages while also including addressable inanimate objects that could be anything from your home's refrigerator to the shoes on your feet .
Perhaps the easiest way to think of the Internet of Things is as an increasingly smart network that links objects with other objects (including personal, portable computing devices carried by people just like you and me.).
It is a different model than building a “smart” Internet using the Semantic Web. The Semantic Web is an evolving extension of the World Wide Web in which the semantics of information and services on the web is defined. That makes it possible for the Web to understand and satisfy the requests of people and machines for finding and using web content. The Semantic Web is being built using existing naming protocols, such as URI, as well as smart, more meaningful metadata. In the Semantic Web, objects themselves do not converse, but now be referred to by other agents, such as servers acting on behalf of human owners.
The Internet of Things is based on the idea that any object can be tagged and tracked as easily as we now think of tagging (digital information) objects. One tagged, objects can searched for, charged for, managed, indexed and distributed. Another way to think about this is that the Internet of Things depends on the addressability of each object or item in the network.
The implications of the Internet of Things are huge. "If all cans, books, shoes or parts of cars are equipped with minuscule identifying devices, daily life on our planet will undergo a transformation. Things like running out of stock or wasted products will no longer exist as we will know exactly what is being consumed on the other side of the globe. Theft will be a thing of the past as we will know where a product is at all times. The same applies to parcels lost in the post.”
These all seem like such futuristic ways of thinking about the world. Until one realizes that the Internet of Things may be here right now. Almost.
Rob Salkowitz recently suggested that the Internet of Things is ready to take off. “The enabling technologies -- RFID, ubiquitous wireless and GPRS networks, Bluetooth, and other short-range transmission channels -- have become so cheap, small, and mundane as to be nearly invisible. Appliances increasingly integrate wireless connections, IP addresses, and Web interfaces as part of their basic design. GPS services are becoming standard on mobile devices.”
Further, he noted that the storage and processing capabilities needed to churn through the data generated by all this “smart stuff” have become commodities that any business can rent from utility providers like Amazon Web Services LLC .
I wonder how many learning professionals have The Internet of Things on his or her own radar. The more I see what is happening in the healthcare, inventory and logistics worlds the more I am convinced that smarter tools and better services are going to have a significant impact on the ALL industries as we know them. I predict that the learning industries are going to be shocked at the speed with which the Internet of Things is going to be upon us. Not just on content publishing and distribution for digital assets and devices of all kinds, but for things like location based performance support services that activate at the point of need, a true learning and performance support personalization, and enterprise systems that help realize the strategic power of information and technology on people and performance.
Ellen, I'm increasingly concerned about the trajectory of this kind of technology. Early out of the gate the visions are for more empowerment and more freedom, yet when the market pushes it out, the uses seem to be oriented more for control than freedom. RFID is a great example... The potential for abuse is great with that technology. It's DRM made physically manifest. I don't think the elearning aspects will blossom until we have reasonable copyright and IP policies out there -- ones which reward sharing, mashing, remix, and reuse instead of punishing those activities.
Besides, there are times I don't want my mesh network of objects to know where I am...
Cheers!
Posted by: Rob Robinson | February 16, 2009 at 07:14 PM