3 – Agenda

by Hans-Jürgen & Stefan

System of Systems
[Bosch Software Innovations]

Internet of Things is a technical term used to refer to the enhanced, new generation of the internet:

“The future Internet of Things links uniquely identifiable things to their virtual representations in the Internet containing or linking to additional information on their identity, status, location or any other business, social or privately relevant information at a financial or non-financial pay-off that exceeds the efforts of information provisioning and offers information access to non-predefined participants. The provided accurate and appropriate information may be accessed in the right quantity and condition, at the right time and place at the right price. The Internet of Things is not synonymous with ubiquitous/pervasive computing, the Internet Protocol (IP), communication technology, embedded devices, its applications, the Internet of People or the Intranet/Extranet of Things, yet it relies on all of these approaches.” [Uckelmann et al. 2011] (page 8)

The terms “Cyber-physical System”, “Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Communication”, or simply “Web 3.0” are sometimes used to denote the same class of systems. Most of the discussion emerged with a technology focus — sometimes even as narrow as focusing on RFID. More recently broader commercial and business aspects have been discussed [Fleisch 2010]. Friedemann Mattern and his group have extended the discussion to include social, ethical, and data privacy implications in the Internet of Things. The perspectives of governance [Kranenburg et al. 2011] and legal and accountability challenges are also beginning to find interest [Weber 2011]. Just recently the Open Internet of Things Assembly co-created and published a statement regarding licensing provisions, accessibility of data, timeliness of access, preservation of privacy and transparency of process.

There is no definition of what the Internet of Things is or will be — or shall be? — from a societal perspective. The Internet of Things will not only change technological systems and their exploitation, but also fundamentally effect human organizations at every level — from small groups of individuals to the whole of society. Our understanding of organizations is that organizations are systems, too [Ackoff and Emery 1972], and we shall later see that this understanding helps identify common trends. To emphasize this sociological perspective shall continue to talk about the Internet of Things & Services, or IoTS for short.

Many new and interesting developments of great potential can be observed in very different areas of human endeavor. These are, one could think, coincidentally, unfolding at the same time as the Internet of Things is getting off the ground. Actually, we prefer to side with Jung and Pauli [Jung and Pauli 1952] to question the random nature of such “coincidences.” Not since the Renaissance has there been such “coincidence” of new developments from so many different areas of human endeavor. The Renaissance or “rebirth” is the progressive, intellectual, and cultural epoch between the 14th-17th century starting in North Italy and spreading out to countries in central Europe. In the same way as the Renaissance was the transition from the Middle Ages to modern times, the advent of the Internet of Things & Services marks the transition from post-modern society to a new era. We are at the beginning of a new, a Second Renaissance. We will demonstrate that it is important to be aware of the vast potential and the consequences of our current actions, by pointing out parallels between the First and the Second Renaissance, especially concerning the core concept of humanism.

Word Cloud of the Internet of Things & Services: Renaissance Re-Born

We present our ideas in several blogs over a period of time. Right now your are reading the motivational and introductory context, which is captured in the pages. Further topics we envisage to include in future blogs — in no particular order:

• Internet of Things & Services as facilitator for an empathic society
• Drivers and Impact of the First Renaissance
• Parallels of First and Second Renaissance
• Two Worlds Collide: Newtonian Industry and Common-based Peer Production
• Communities – Central and/or Emphatic
• Power of Paradigms – Control and Trust
• Communities and Openness
• Physics of Software
• Democratization of Resources and Humanism
• Open (for) Change
• Organizational Physics
• Data Privacy and Black Economy of Data

The sequence of topics and the topics themselves are subject to change. Change can also induced by your reaction to our ideas.

The literature or other references we use will be kept up to date in a reference Zotero library. Terminology will be aggregated in the glossary part.

Please continue reading our first post here.