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93 Foreign Aff. 60 (2014)
As Objects Go Online; The Promise (and Pitfalls) of the Internet of Things

handle is hein.journals/fora93 and id is 326 raw text is: As Objects Go Online The Promise (and Pitfalls) of the Internet of Things Neil Gershenfeld andJP Vasseur Since 1969, when the first bit of data was transmitted over what would come to be known as the Internet, that global network has evolved from linking mainframe computers to connecting per- sonal computers and now mobile devices. By 2010, the number of com- puters on the Internet had surpassed the number of people on earth. Yet that impressive growth is about to be overshadowed as the things around us start going online as well, part of what is called the Internet of Things. Thanks to advances in circuits and software, it is now pos- sible to make a Web server that fits on (or in) a fingertip for $1. When embedded in everyday objects, these small computers can send and re- ceive information via the Internet so that a coffeemaker can turn on when a person gets out of bed and turn off when a cup is loaded into a dishwasher, a stoplight can communicate with roads to route cars around traffic, a building can operate more efficiently by knowing where people are and what they're doing, and even the health of the whole planet can be monitored in real time by aggregating the data from all such devices. Linking the digital and physical worlds in these ways will have profound implications for both. But this future won't be realized unless the Internet of Things learns from the history of the Internet. The open standards and decentralized design of the Internet won out over competing proprietary systems and centralized control by offering fewer obstacles to innovation and growth. This battle has resurfaced with the proliferation of conflicting visions of how devices should communicate. The challenge is primarily organizational, rather then technological, a contest between command-and-control technology NEIL GERSHENFELD is a Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and directs MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms. JP VASSEUR is a Cisco Fellow and Chief Architect of the Internet of Things at Cisco Systems. 60 FOREIGN AFFAIRS

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