Orange Silicon Valley launched an all-new podcast series in August, offering a platform for getting to know more about OSV analysts and their work with connective technologies. The Bistrocast will explore a variety of topics that OSV is researching and interested in, focusing on technology trends, as well as examining how new technologies can be implemented.
The Bistrocast features commentary directly from OSV experts about their fields of study, research, and other work. It offers insights into their current areas of interest and topics that are driving innovation.
The Bistrocast’s first two episodes feature Mike Vladimer and Will Barkis, who work with the Internet of Things (IoT) and Smart Cities programs, respectively. Mike and Will introduced their programs, their scopes of work, and where they see technology going in the future. Below are just a handful of highlights from these first two Bistrocast episodes. Listen to the full episodes in the embedded audio players, and watch for more episodes to come very soon.
Mike Vladimer on the essence of IoT
“IoT is comprised of four things: sensors, connectivity, computation, and user interface. It used to be too expensive to build IoT products, but all aspects of it have dropped so much in price that IoT can now exist. What used to be impossible is now technologically feasible and economically affordable. An IoT product should not be aimed at trying to solve everything all at once, but rather be the best in its specific area of specialty. IoT should be used to analyze niche issues.”
How can we differentiate/ categorize IoT products?
Mike identifies two types of IoT, which he labels IoT 1.0 and IoT 2.0. IoT 1.0 has the mentality of, “if we can IoT-ify it, let’s IoT-ify it.” People are IoT-ifying products, but when we add up how much value is created for how many people, it’s not game-changing. IoT 2.0 is, “let’s be creative, let’s be imaginative let’s not just IoT-ify solutions to existing problems. Let’s solve problems we could never solve before.”
The importance of IoT, and how it can help us for the future
Mike believes we’re living in a fundamental paradigm shift around data and he’s working to find compelling problems that data can solve. People say data is the new oil. If you ask the question, “What was the meaning of fossil fuels for humanity?” he argues that it was unlimited access to power. Anything that you wanted power to do before fossil fuels was probably prohibited, and now you can do it. Data is all about understanding what’s happening. IoT can help us work though these problems with all of the data it’s collecting.
Will Barkis on defining Smart Cities
“What is needed for a smart city is based on the local problem space. There’s an element of human-centric design, and a user-centric focus. That is a universal thing as far as the outwardly facing smart cities applications are concerned. Smart Cities have three essential pieces: data, connectivity, and collaboration. Smart Cities will be around for a long time because they work towards something that brings data in, and takes action with that given information.”
Examples of recent Smart Cities innovations
“We’re seeing things like street lights being deployed. San Diego is doing a project on LED lights,” Will explained. “The reason to put them in is because of energy efficiency, we aren’t putting as many lightbulbs in. We’re going to have air quality sensors to oversee the health of our community. There are kiosks in New York that have stands with ports to charge your phone or have touch screen information about the city. These are replacing telephone booths. These are two good examples because they have business models that can support them and build future infrastructure.”