I’m a bit concerned right now – apart from the Telecom Regulatory Authority in the UAE turning off my Blackberry – about the connected world – the combination of hardware and software in the place based social networking space – is ahead of both legislation and also social norms. Not a major issue so don’t get me wrong, I’m not calling for regulation but I think that there are some areas where we are going to have problems if we’re not watching.
In the last two to three years we have had major changes in the volume of geotagged data, the level of engagement in social networking tools and the intelligence linked to in building devices. This has resulted in functionality available to every day users that has no basis for control.
Take for example that by the end of 2010 facial recognition software, with a web search function will be available on the I-phone. Anyone, anywhere can take your photo and a search engine will collate data from the web based on your face – Linkedin profiles, Facebook, your school photo, last holiday, recent speaking engagements and criminal records – everything that is not locked down will be on that persons phone in minutes. There is no legislation or generally accepted set of social behaviors as a reference point for what’s good or bad in using this, even if common sense prevails we still have a runaway train.
The ability to create geotagged data has changed dramatically. As of now, almost 20% of all apps on the Apple I store have some level of place centric functionality to them. Nike has put sensors in some shoes that allow your run to be mapped. Analysts are creating complex and soon real time heat maps based on geotagged data for things such as crime, .
We have governments adopting social networking and collaboration tools to get citizens more involved in data collection and provision. Find a pothole in the road – in some countries a few clicks and its reported, soon it will automatically dispatch an inspection crew to assess required work. Better still analytics can use multiple reports and photographs and assess the severity of each issue and prioritise responses.
I’ve started to see some early indications of augmented reality in the enterprise space – using the I-phone interface to SAP business objects library – now I can find our customers, job locations, I can also get data on our products or equipment and use my phone to update the enterprise database. Convergence of data into usable interfaces is accelerating rapidly
Data on place is changing forever – Google maps is free to use but has restrictions and Google will always own the data, the user interface and the context. Open Street Map is a wiki based map that anyone can update – and with Garmin GPS now having a “create new road” on the fly function we can all start to share free map data – that’s why Nokia have started to give away the map data for free for life, if you buy the phone.
Social behaviors – look at the issue of checking who is polluting in your neighborhood, a recent Harvard Business Review Article quoted use of Scorecard.org to identify local 20 top polluters in 15 seconds and immediate links to various tools of action. There are sites and pages that publish Facebook etiquette advice and there are generally accepted do’s and don’t on Linkedin that most folk understand.
The smart grid – what I think will soon be the largest networks of devices on the planet is growing and becoming more intelligent every day. We have companies that are making street lights into intelligent networks that can self manage consumption and switching them to LED’s so they run for 30 years, cannot be smashed by youths with stones and use next to no power. Google and Microsoft are rushing to put devices and software in your house that will tell you stuff about your electricity consumption with a view to informing you so you can make informed decisions about power use (when I was a kid dad just went around the house and turned off all the lights at least twice a night). I’m not convinced my teenage daughters will behave any differently though. But as the smart grid stands today anyone who knows what they are doing can get a lot of information from the devices in your home – like the best time to break in!
Something is still missing and I think it will help to enforce security and privacy. What I think is needed is s simple but effective piece of security – a personal identifier that like the information connected to us is ubiquitous (ugh, overused jargon). Smart phones are almost there but not quite – I want to get rid of my car and house keys, my passwords and my ATM cards and carry a digital key for everything in my phone. It should have all the rights and obligations I need to access and activate everything – also identify me and confirm my account for billing and payment. Its just about getting the security apps on phones connected with enterprise systems and device networks so that everything can work without friction.
This is my real point. We are in a converging world. With enterprise vendors setting up VR tools on mobiles then there is no question social networking tools will transition into business networking tools and support remote social interaction amongst team members – enabling a virtual coffee machine culture – we can work anywhere and still be part of the team.
With location we have the ability to manager proximity – so the things your near can be set to behave in response to your profile. With a connection to the enterprise I can now manage what my employees experience no matter where they work. The Sci-Fi of five years ago is now becoming reality.
