P1110441 Alex Williams on the Internet of Things

Alex Williams, editor at ReadWriteWeb, gives a solo presentation "The Wonderful Things in Internet of Things". It's about the near future when not just computers and smart phones, but all our devices will have IP address and will be networked. He mentioned many likely technological trends powered by networked devices, but none that were new to me, such as connected cars and sensor networks. He noted that there are neat things done with sensor networks even now. An institution as prosaic and old school as DC Water -- a municipal water and sewer department for Washington DC -- jumped into the future by putting sensors on water pipes, some as old as Civil War. Now they have a much better idea of what the problems are in the system: this water meter is acting funky over here, it may be going out of service. Let's replace it. By doing this, DC Water has become a cool fixture in the community. It also helps that people can read their water usage on DC Water website.

Another trend is geofencing -- a capability to put a perimeter around a certain area, so you'll see who comes in and out of that particular location. If someone is crossing a street, you'll see they're crossing the street. Then there are smart homes, the kind that turn the lights and air conditioning on or off depending on whether they sense your presence in a room, and remind you to water the plants or that your fridge is getting low on milk.

One guy said he'd like to track his dog's whereabouts on the Internet Of Things.

Here are my blog posts from SXSW 2010:

Life as a Startup Parent;

Marissa Mayer on Google's new augmented reality and location-based services;

Where Are The Women in Startups? Um, Everywhere!

Seth Priebatsch keynote speech on gamification;

Bruce Sterling admonishes;

Social Media is Science Fiction;

The Singularity: Humanity's Huge Techno Challenge.