SoS Musings #5 - IoT
SoS Musings #5
IoT
In June, the PEW Research Center published an article on the implications of the growing connectivity of the Internet of Things. They state 49% of the world's population is connected online and estimate 8.4 billion connected things are in use worldwide. PEW and Elon University canvassed a large number of technologists, scholars, practitioners, strategic thinkers and other leaders to posit the implications. The group concluded that 15% of the population would disconnect while 85% would move deeply into connected life. They also came up with seven major themes on the future of the Internet of Things and connected life. All of these themes are driven by Human Behavior.
Human Behavior is one of the "Hard Problems" enumerated by the SoS lablets. Studies are hampered by lack of large open data bases from non-heterogeneous sources because of access and privacy concerns. The SOUPS 2017 conference proceedings give a glimpse of some of the current research in this area.
The Atlantic recently had an article on the need for the Internet of Things to have a code of Ethics. It claims technology is evolving faster than legal and moral frameworks needed to manage it. It posits that security is the critical Achilles heel and the need to think from the design stage about use in the social framework. NCSU is conducting research on norms. A paper entitled "Tosca: Operationalizing Commitments Over Information Protocols" was presented at the 26th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) highlighting some progress.
McKinsey published "Security in the Internet of Things" stating security issues might represent the greatest obstacle to the growth of the Internet of Things and indicates a role for semiconductor companies in security. Hopefully, security claims made should require support by security science research.
Many are predicting an explosion of the IoT. A Forbes article provides an IoT roundup.
Clearly a large community of scientists is needed to provide solutions based on science. Increased funding for such research is problematic.