What Can the Internet of Things Do for the Citizen? Workshop at Pervasive 2010

Approximately 25 researchers from Europe, Asia, and the US discussed applications and new challenges of linking networked objects reporting about their state, location, and conditions to mobile phones, networked appliances, and devices. Reports of several research projects yielded a consensus that simply building platforms and tools is not enough for doing successful research. Instead, research should target larger user bases and aim for larger-scale evaluations. Accordingly, discussions emerged about how to drive user adoption of research prototypes, when development transits from research to service provision, and a new notion of privacy where users who share their own data are be granted access to services that build on this data. The overall conclusion was that users no longer communicate only with people but also are empowered to interact with objects. The IoT was seen to reach a tipping point of not only embracing corporate users but also approaching the everyday user.