THE IOT:

A REVOLUTION
IS UNDER WAY
T.J. MCLEISH
 Much (perhaps too much) has been
written about the “Internet of Things”
or “Internet of Everything.” But the idea
itself has been around for decades.
Marshall McLuhan described the “con-
tent” of a light bulb in Understanding
Media: The Extensions of Man in
1964. Decades later, Mark Weiser
described physical manifestations and
uses of ubiquitous computing in “The
Computer for the 21st Century.”
However, the actual technology to
make the IoT practical and affordable
has only been around for a few years.
Together, the advent of simple com-
munications protocols (like Bluetooth
low energy); the continued evolution
of processing power, speed, size, and
energy efficiency; advances in machine
learning and management of vast re-
al-time data streams; the proliferation
of prototyping platforms easing IoT
development; and the ubiquity of
smartphones driving down the cost
of technology have all created the
opportunity to act on those decades of
pent-up ideas.
That acting on these ideas is relatively
easy shifts who can act. One doesn’t
need a big lab with armies of engineers
and mountains of money. Crowdfund-
ing (like Kickstarter) has had a big
effect on what is being developed and
who is developing it. Numerous great
ideas, and several not so great, are be-
ing pursued. A revolution is under way.
TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY
A higher profile
The movement of big and visible com-
panies into the IoT space has attracted
a great deal of attention. Apple, with its
The most profound
recent launch of the Apple Watch, has technologies are
many people believing that wearables
are ready to go mainstream. The much
those that disappear.
anticipated release of its IoT platform, They weave
HomeKit, along with the first wave
of home products compatible with it,
themselves into the
suggests that Apple believes IoT to be fabric of everyday
ready for the mainstream, as well.
life until they are
Samsung acquired the IoT home indistinguishable
platform, SmartThings (launched on
Kickstarter in August, 2012) on August from it.
14, 2014, and has committed $100 - Mark Weiser
“The Computer for the 21st
million in funding for the creation of Century,” 1991.
an open Internet of Things to which all
things are to be connected by the end
of 2020 (see Figure 1). Google ac-
quired the home IoT innovator, Nest, on
January 13, 2014, for over $3 billion.
FIGURE01
Samsung & SmartThings
Samsung has committed $100M in funding for the creation of an open Internet
of Things to which all things are to be connected by 2020.
 Facebook has Parse (2013), which
recently released a software develop-
ment kit (SDK) for IoT development
(see Figure 2). Microsoft, Intel, Cisco,
Amazon, and Huawei are in the mix, as
well. In fact, it might even be easier to
list the companies that haven’t made a
claim on IoT.1
FIGURE02
Facebook & Parse
Parse is an SDK that connects hardware, such as the Arduino Yun microcontrol-
ler, with cloud-based databases. This would allow, for example, regular storing of
sensor readings or images from a security camera in the cloud.

Why all the fuss?

IoT is a new computing platform and
the expectations are that it will have
an impact similar to the introduction
of PCs in the 80’s, the web in the
90’s, and smartphones in the 00’s.
The expectation is that it will transform
our world. How exactly? Well, the
hype today points to the Apple watch,
ARDUINO
while reality points to the agricultural YUN

industry (where exemplary investment

in IoT innovation is occurring). No one
is really sure of the full impact on busi-
ness-to-consumer (B2C) interactions,
but everyone is getting ready and no
one wants to miss the boat.

At SapientNitro, we consider the digital

ecosystems created by connected
IoT environments to be Story Systems
and platforms consisting of enabling
technologies, connections planning,
and systems thinking. The platforms are
essential to our Storyscaping approach.

However, big questions remain. How

does one design useful IoT services?
How does one then sell these services?
How does a brand exist in an IoT
service? Is there a place for contextual
advertising? Is there something better?

1
Cnet. “Samsung snaps up SmartThings, embracing Internet of Things.” http://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-snaps-up-smartthings-embracing-internet-of-things/.

TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY


Trends to watch
1
2
INSIGHTS AND LEARNING,
NOT AUTOMATION
As we approach 5 billion connected
devices, each sending real-time data,
the ability to ingest and interpret that
data will place the emphasis on robust
insights and analytics on a huge scale.2
Quality, affordable analysis will become
more important. And we’re starting to
see firms respond.
One symptom is the shift in language
from “automation” to “insights” and
“learning.” Take, as an example,
Amazon’s Echo description: “Always
Getting Smarter. Echo's brain is in the
cloud, running on Amazon Web Ser-
vices so it continually learns and adds
more functionality over time. The more
you use Echo, the more it adapts to
your speech patterns, vocabulary, and
personal preferences.”3 To a learned
house: “Works with Nest. It’s about
making your house a more thoughtful
and conscious home™.”4
We are also seeing new products and
services for IoT focused on analysis
and learning. Arrayent – “…an IoT
platform that enables trusted consumer
brands to implement connected prod-
ucts and systems” – offers an “insight
cloud”. Similarly, Elgato’s Eve claims
that consumers can “gain insights that
help [them] improve [their] comfort, and
make [their] home a smarter place.”
2
Gartner. “Gartner Says 4.9 Billion Connected ‘Things’ Will Be in Use in 2015.” http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/
id/2905717.
3
Amazon. “Amazon Echo.” http://www.amazon.com/oc/echo/.
4
Nest. “Works with Nest.” https://nest.com/works-­with-­nest/.
TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY
Furthermore, as the number and diver-
sity of devices proliferate, platforms will
have richer sources. Valuable insights
about your home and life are a marked
improvement from simply claiming
that you can control your home from
anywhere – the current benchmark for
the connected home.
SERVICES, NOT JUST THINGS
Leaders in the space realize that the
IoT is not about “things.” It is about
services. Mark Kuniavsky of PARC calls
the new physical objects of the IoT
“service avatars,” shifting the emphasis
away from “thing” and onto “service.”
Simon King of IDEO describes an
increased physicality to brand expres-
sion. Brand expression “lives” as ser-
vice in the connected environments we
are building all around us. An observa-
tion from CES (Consumer Electronics
Show) 2015 is the shift in language
describing IoT offerings from home au-
tomation to insights and learning, which
is far more provocative and useful.
As the IoT matures into a robust
platform for the development of new
services and products, we expect to
see the rise of apps and app platforms.
Similar to a decade ago with smart-
phones, the savviest companies are
already trying to offer useful services on
top of their “things.” From IFTTT (which
stands for “if this, then that” and is a
company focused on DIY automation
tools) to AT&T’s Digital Life platform,
applications which link data from multi-
ple sources and provide great additio-
nal value will propagate.
 4
And just as smartphone creators did
not anticipate the incredibly diverse
range of applications for what is (oddly)
still called a phone, the range of appli- Predictive behavior,
cations built for the connected home PRIVACY
will surely be far beyond what we can
enabled by machine

3
imagine now.
ALLEGIANCES, PARTNERS,
AND PLAYING WELL
TOGETHER
The inability of many devices to com-
municate with each other is an obstacle
for their widespread adoption. And
there are several solutions being
pursued.
Apple’s HomeKit and HealthKit follow
a model not unlike the brand’s mobile
app development model. To acquire
certification, your app must pass
Apple’s scrutiny, thus guaranteeing
high-quality and compatible apps for
these connected platforms.
Furthermore (and as we noted earlier),
Samsung has pledged that, by 2020,
every single product that it sells will be
connected to the IoT. Similarly, Nest
Labs has a growing network of strate-
gic partners with whom it is collectively
building out compatibility, the resulting
products of which get the “Works with
Nest” certification.
That machine learning is key to
services enabled by the IoT, and that learning, is the key
learning takes data and time (and a
machine likely in the cloud), raises
to business models
some privacy concerns around how of most B2C IoT
collected data is used − and how the
learnings are shared with others. We’ve
products.
witnessed different privacy approaches - Mark Kuniavsky,
Principal Scientist, PARC
being followed.
Consumers have justifiably grown
sensitive to privacy concerns. When
Mattel announced that “Hello Barbie”
would be recording children’s con-
versations and storing them online,
serious concerns were raised about the
product.5 Indeed, the voice-recognizing
technology (ToyTalk) does record voice
as it is necessary to learn. And Mattel
clearly states, “We do not use the
content of the Recordings to contact
children or for advertising purposes” in
its privacy policy.6 But it is not easy to
remove suspicions.

6
Stop Mattel’s “Hello Barbie” Eavesdropping Doll. “Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.” http://org.salsalabs.com/
o/621/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=17347.
ToyTalk. “Privacy Policy.” https://www.toytalk.com/legal/privacy/.
7

TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY

 Apple approaches this more stringently
in their HomeKit and HealthKit connect-
ed platforms. HomeKit apps must have
the primary purpose of providing home
automation services, must provide a pri-
vacy policy, must not use data gathered
for advertising or other use-based data
mining, and must limit the use of data
gathered to improving the user experi-
ence and/or the app’s performance in
providing home automation function-
ality. Similarly, HealthKit apps may not
use the user data gathered from the
HealthKit API for third party disclo-
sure, for health-related human subject
research for advertising or use-based
data mining purposes (other than for
improving health), or for the purpose of
health research.6
Nest Labs’ policy is more porous. They
pledge to “be transparent about the
different types of information [they]
collect and how [they] use [the infor-
mation].” And to “ask your permission
before sharing your Personally Identi-
fiable Information with third parties for
purposes other than to provide Nest’s
services, and to do so only when [they]
think [the third parties] will provide you
with a welcome additional service.”7
SmartThings, on the other hand, wel-
comes appropriate advertisers, as seen
in this example from their privacy policy:
“For example, we might share with our
6
Apple Developer. “App Store Review Guidelines.” https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/.
7
Nest. “Privacy Statement.” https://nest.com/legal/privacy-statement/.
8
SmartThings. “Privacy.” http://www.smartthings.com/privacy/.
TRENDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY & STORY
Advertisers the fact that a moisture
sensor that you have connected to our
Services has detected a flood in order
to show you ads or offers for local
plumbing services.”8
The varying success of these different
approaches will have a big impact on
the kinds of services IoT enables. How
do we use machine learning to discover
new things? What is the line between
privacy violations and good advice from
a service? How much trust do people
have in the brands they are adopting,
and how is useful information shared
back to the user inside and outside of
the system? These are all significant
questions that remain to be answered.
Conclusion
The evolution of the IoT is perhaps the
most transformative trend of the next
decade. As billions of devices connect
to networks and begin talking to each
other, vast new potential is unlocked.
The IoT will continue to disrupt entire
industries and change how businesses,
cities, and homes work. For advertisers
and marketers, this ubiquitous comput-
ing platform offers a greater chance to
get closer to our customers, and also
allows us to offer personalized stories
that better engage them.
 T.J. McLeish
Director of Experience Technology and Emerging Analytics,
SapientNitro Chicago
tmcleish@sapient.com
With his 15 years of experience in ubiquitous computing
and the built environment, T.J. provides expertise in
advanced analytics, data visualization, data modeling,
and measurement to guide innovation and design in the
digital/physical world.

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