What Is the Internet of Things?

Chapter 1. What Is the Internet of Things?

At our first Solid conference in 2014, we started a wide-ranging discussion about the “intersection between software and the physical world.” A year later, this discussion is continuing, with even more energy and passion than before. You can hardly read a newspaper (if you still read newspapers) without seeing something about the “Internet of Things” and the rise of the hardware startup. But what does the intersection between software and hardware mean?

Early in 2013, we sat around a table in Sebastopol to survey some interesting trends in technology. There were many: robotics, sensor networks, the Industrial Internet, the professionalization of the Maker movement, hardware-oriented startups. It was a confusing picture, until we realized that these weren’t separate trends. They’re all more alike than different—they are all the visible result of the same underlying forces. Startups like FitBit and Withings were taking familiar old devices, like pedometers and bathroom scales, and making them intelligent by adding computer power and network connections. At the other end of the industrial scale, GE was doing the same thing to jet engines and locomotives. Our homes are increasingly the domain of smart robots, including Roombas and 3D printers, and we’ve started looking forward to self-driving cars and personal autonomous drones. Every interesting new product has a network connection—be it WiFi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, or even a basic form of piggybacking ...