Gartner: Internet of Things Has Reached Hype Peak 98
Brandon Butler writes In the annual battle of the buzzwords, the Internet of Things has won. Each year the research firm Gartner puts out a Hype Cycle of emerging technologies, a sort of report card for various trends and buzzwords. This year, IoT tops the list. On another note, somewhat surprising is that Gartner says the "cloud computing" is not just hype anymore, but becoming a mainstream technology.
why buzzwords are bad (Score:4, Insightful)
"internet of things" is a redundant concept...same as "the cloud"
it's all just "the internet"
the fact that you hook up your bike tire to a sensor so you get an email when your air is low isn't a new "thing" that should be given a "name"
it's just a further application of an existing technology...
big brother and his capitalist cousin want "the internet of things" to control our behavior..."the cloud" is a way to get you to put all your data with one "carrier" be it google, apple, or another...they want to have as much of your behavior on their system as possible
so there's a component of dishonesty..."the cloud" and "the internet of things" were phrases chosen to obscure and confuse meaning not communicate it
Re:Why did they pick such a bad buzzword? (Score:3, Insightful)
My shoes are things. So is my belt, and my wallet. The canvas that makes up my wallet? That's a thing, too.
The tyres on my cars?
Things.
The spider I just found on the wall in my bathroom? That's a thing.
Toothbrushes are things. Shoelaces, glasses, batteries, guitar picks, and highlighters. Those are all things, too.
The buckle on my watch strap, the standard sized potentiometers, and that male 3.5mm stereo headphone jack to male 3.5mm stereo headphone jack, those are all things, too.
Governments? Those are a thing.
It could as easily (and more accurately) be called "Internet of Appliances" or "Internet of a Marketer's Wet Dream." Hell, "Internet of the NSA's greatest opportunity yet."
So don't go getting all preachy and so anal you could make a diamond with every butt clench, because you just make a dick of yourself.
No one asked the most important question! (Score:4, Insightful)
(another word that desperately needs to die.)
Re:why buzzwords are bad (Score:2, Insightful)
"internet of things" is a redundant concept...same as "the cloud"
it's all just "the internet"
Just because you don't like the name, doesn't mean it's not useful. Or just because it's not useful to you, doesn't mean that it's not useful for others.
Concepts like the "internet of things" and the "cloud" may be somewhat vague and therefore sometimes misused, but they still have enough meaning in them that they can be useful in speech.
For example, "cloud storage", or "cloud server" are terms which are quite useful for me and most people here.
Sure, you could replace them by "internet-accessible storage", or "distributed virtual servers in internet-accessible shared hardware" but why would you do that when there are perfectly good accepted terms to describe those?
it's just a further application of an existing technology...
That's irrelevant. You can argue that a smartphone is just a standard mobile phone + PDA functionality, and you'd be right. Doesn't mean the word "smartphone" is useless though, does it?
big brother and his capitalist cousin want "the internet of things" to control our behavior
Oh shit, you're one of those!
so there's a component of dishonesty..."the cloud" and "the internet of things" were phrases chosen to obscure and confuse meaning not communicate it
There's no dishonesty. The "internet of things" term was born in academia and is meant to represent the notion of connecting devices which traditionally aren't, e.g. light switches, water taps or even more complex devices like washing machines.
Yeah it's a stupid term, but that's what you get when you have computer science PhDs naming stuff. If the concept were named nowadays, it'd probably be called "smart devices" or something similar.