Cisco’s Head of Technology and Strategy Padmasree Warrior was interviewed about Connecting Everything by McKinsey’s Rik Kirkland.
Internet of Things, The Social web of Everything, Smart cities, what does Cisco mean with their Internet of Everything? Warrior is very clear on what he thinks the Internet of Everything is:
“So when we say “the Internet of Everything,” we mean an intelligent way to connect processes with data and things. Not just the Internet of Things, not just connecting the devices onto the network, but how can you use the information that’s being collected to drive better processes, better decision making for businesses, and better lifestyles for users and consumers? And we mean more efficient ways to analyze that data through analytics from the network—which is our expertise—to make every single vertical (manufacturing, retail, transportation) significantly different than what it is today.”
And their making progress:
“We’ll make significant progress in connecting the 99 percent that’s still unconnected. That will be people, that will be devices, and that will be a lot more information on the network.”
A lot of dark sides of technology on our blog this week. So why not one more. Our latest research focuses on connected objects or in a more popular term: the internet of things.
The same technology (sensors etc) that drive our world towards a data driven society and could have a high impact on products, process optimizing and basically the quantification of everything also raise real concerns about new privacy intrusive technological possibilities such as new types of surveillance, ubiquitous monitoring and deep data analyses on an individual level.
In a essay in The Guardian, Bruce Schneier, writes about the possible impact of this new data reality and what it might mean for us:
In the near term, at least, the sheer volume of data will limit the sorts of conclusions that can be drawn. The invasiveness of these technologies depends on asking the right questions. For example, if a private investigator is watching you in the physical world, she or he might observe odd behavior and investigate further based on that. Such serendipitous observations are harder to achieve when you’re filtering databases based on pre-programmed queries. In other words, it’s easier to ask questions about what you purchased and where you were than to ask what you did with your purchases and why you went where you did. These analytical limitations also mean that companies like Google and Facebook will benefit more from the Internet of Things than individuals — not only because they have access to more data, but also because they have more sophisticated query technology. And as technology continues to improve, the ability to automatically analyze this massive data stream will improve.
In the longer term, the Internet of Things means ubiquitous surveillance. If an object “knows” you have purchased it, and communicates via either Wi-Fi or the mobile network, then whoever or whatever it is communicating with will know where you are. Your car will know who is in it, who is driving, and what traffic laws that driver is following or ignoring. No need to show ID; your identity will already be known. Store clerks could know your name, address, and income level as soon as you walk through the door. Billboards will tailor ads to you, and record how you respond to them. Fast food restaurants will know what you usually order, and exactly how to entice you to order more. Lots of companies will know whom you spend your days — and nights — with. Facebook will know about any new relationship status before you bother to change it on your profile. And all of this information will all be saved, correlated, and studied. Even now, it feels a lot like science fiction.
Will you know any of this? Will your friends? It depends. Lots of these devices have, and will have, privacy settings. But these settings are remarkable not in how much privacy they afford, but in how much they deny. Access will likely be similar to your browsing habits, your files stored on Dropbox, your searches on Google, and your text messages from your phone. All of your data is saved by those companies — and many others — correlated, and then bought and sold without your knowledge or consent. You’d think that your privacy settings would keep random strangers from learning everything about you, but it only keeps random strangers who don’t pay for the privilege – or don’t work for the government and have the ability to demand the data. Power is what matters here: you’ll be able to keep the powerless from invading your privacy, but you’ll have no ability to prevent the powerful from doing it again and again.
Here’s the complete essay, it definitely points us towards a not to be ignored topic for our research.
On May 20 we enjoyed a happy international launch. Sander Duivestein and I wrote this new report called The Dark Side of Social Media – Alarm Bells, Analysis and the Way Out. It’s all about the necessity of Digital Literacy and SlowTech — the Off Button and the Delete Button to quote Google’s Eric Schmidt. Our report is provocative but the issues are very real and their importance continue to grow on a daily basis. Read the pages and you’ll find a discussion that is factual, actual and passionate.
As a matter of fact, The Dark Side of Social Media is about anything Social: social and mobile and cloud: hardware, software, any social media-related platform. Chatting, shopping, gaming, viewing, collaborating: from email to Facebook to YouTube to Social Business tools, and of course apps. We deliberately not take into account the overly known obscure, rude and vulgar places on the Web.
The Dark Side of Social Media is about the wrong focus, about exposure, bad taste, bad manners and habits, distraction, disconnectedness, addiction, and perhaps above all counterproductivity. The risk amplified by digital media of not doing the right things while not doing right the things you find yourself doing.
The Dark Side of Social Media has a profound societal and personal focus and therefore is extremely relevant to organizations. The report’s importance has only intensified since the date of conception which approximately was some 30 months ago. The following seven scattered sources may serve to convince even the most firm skeptics:
When we were working on the VINT books Me the Media (2008) and The App Effect (2012), it became increasingly apparent that the dark sides of social and mobile media definitely called for a chapter of their own. Not to gloat over them, but to expose the related developments and concerns, and to think about a way out. We are not the only one. Recently several people have raised awareness for the Dark Side of Social Media.
In the first week of January 2013 a Tumblr website put our society into a fearsome perspective. The website features a collage of images of people staring down at their cell phones. They are lost in time. Frozen in the moment. Their body is in meatspace, but their mind is in cyberspace. They are completely detached from their surroundings.
The blog is created by a researcher on mobility who lives in Helsinki, Finland. The About page contained the following statement: “The world has gone mobile. We live in an information society and are connected to information anywhere we go, and whatever we do, 24/7. And that has changed how we as people behave. We never look up anymore. ”
The Tumblr website “We Never Look Up” visualizes the society we now live in. It creates awareness for the effect that social media and smartphones are having on our lifes. In an interview with newspaper Metro the creator made the following comment: “I’m not saying it is a negative thing, when done safely. It’s just that we need to be aware of that times change, and behavior as well. But in social context, with friends, etc., it’s kind of rude to finger on your mobile the whole time. My message is not to judge, just to make this behavior con-crete.” Just like the creator of the Tumblr site, we have been keeping track of it all.
Recently Sergey Brin took the stage during an improvised keynote at the TED conference in California. During his speech Brin talked about the fact that smartphones are distracting people. “Is this the way you’re meant to interact with other people? Is the future of connection just people walking around hunched up, looking down, rubbing a featureless piece of glass? [...] It’s kind of emasculating. Is this what you’re meant to do with your body? You want something that will free your eyes?” The solution to the problem of distraction is according to Brin of course Google Glass.
In our trendreport “The Dark Side of Social Media” we dive into the question how social media and digital technology are affecting our lives. The report presents a three-stage rocket. It starts with a record of all sorts of alarm bells that went off throughout the years with increasing loudness. The subsequent part is an analysis dealing with ten jet-black consequences for 21st century Homo Digitalis Mobilis. And finally it presents a way out with the starting point that social is the new capital. Social business is growing, being focused on people-first, commitment and transparency. In addition, the age of context is coming. Uncontrolled real time should make way for controlled right time. Being “always on” will diminish as new technology that calls for attention at the right moment without constantly distracting will occur.
We believe that SlowTech should become the norm with reciprocal relationships being expressed in connections between apps, analytics, (big) data, media, mobile and social. We will have to become more responsible for our social behaviour and toughen up, offering resistance to temptations, particularly those of social media including games and the screen devices on which they operate.
We should no longer be slaves, but masters, of technology and make sure to prevent ourselves from drowning in the ever increasing flood of information. We imagine that the barb of hectic stress must be removed, something that can only be done on the basis of our behavior and with the help of technology. It is a combination that has put us in an awkward predicament, but that may also serve as leverage — using the right vision as a starting point — to add value and humaneness to our lives, both apart from and with social and mobile media.
Leap Motionrevealed a new video today showing off the device’s gesture control capabilities with Windows 7 and 8. When plugged into a Windows OS device, the Leap Motion will support full multitouch gestures out of the box, allowing users to click, drag, scroll, swipe and rotate screens entirely with gestural input.
Cisco’s Head of Technology and Strategy Padmasree Warrior was interviewed about Connecting Everything by McKinsey’s Rik Kirkland.
