A post by Katie Fehrenbacher today in GigaOm talked about the potential of the Internet of Things to impact energy efficiency. Katie points out that while a number of startups are driving innovation in energy efficiency through networks like smart grids, these are really a subset of the broader movement toward the networking of all devices, or the Internet of Things. When our cars, appliances, light bulbs, thermostats, and factories are all talking to each other in real time, then it becomes possible to optimize them all as one energy system.
The point that Katie makes is a great one, but there’s an even bigger one to be made. There is a powerful confluence occurring among the Internet of Things (generating real time, granular data), the Cloud (efficiently storing that data), Big Data (analyzing that data to find insights and opportunities), and Social Collaboration (providing context, incentives, and action around those insights and opportunities). The combination of these distinct but complementary technology movements are obviously impacting everyday aspects of our lives such as media and retail. They have the potential to be profoundly greater, however, when applied to some of the great problems of our generation: health, education, energy, the environment, public safety, and the cost of government.
I would challenge almost every corporation or government agency involved in these areas to think deeply about how radically different their business model could look within three to five years with the full power of the Internet of Things, the Cloud, Big Data, and Social Collaboration applied to their mission. The ones that get it have the opportunity to make huge leaps forward at surprisingly little cost. The ones that don’t will ultimately calcify as other leads disruptive innovation using these technologies.
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