What is The internet of things?

Internet of things ... was an interesting thought.  I was given a choice about a topic, a topic which seemed so vague, and yet intriguing at the very same time, caught my eye.  I was not going to let this topic slip away and I quickly grabbed it. 

  

For quite some time the internet has intrigued me.  My first actual experience with using the internet was in the early 90's, i believe about '92 or '93.  I was 4-5 years into my stint in the navy and was renting a house with 4 other guys.  We had 4 computers between the 5 of us and every single one of them had some type of rudimentary games by today’s standards.  Back then about all the internet could really do for you was to connect to the internet using a phone modem.  I think my first one was a 3600 bps (yes BITS PER SECOND). They were very slow and clunky and would take an hour just to load one song from the local internet BBS site (BBS= Bulletin Board System).  You had to find them from friends or sometimes listed in grocery stores or bus stations.  Every now and again a new up and coming book would have a BBS you could phone into would be available.  You would dial in and you could check out some new text files or maybe some very crappy photos about the book.  The internet was quite boring back then. 

Even in the early 90's the internet was slinging around data for a good 25 years.  But it was only in the few years prior that it connected some of these local BBS sites.  In 1993 that the very first browsers were used.  The Netscape mosaic had a rudimentary software that would exchange information in a more user-friendly way and was the leader in web browser development.  It was the first “protocol” that utilized the internet in a way ordinary people would understand.  It only took 5 years from public internet, without a regulating body, to become something that was used by the public on a much larger scale.  From Mosaic a full 12 other browsers spawned.  One of the most famous originally started as “phoenix”.     Also, by 1995 approximately 16 million users were connected to the internet.  According to world bank, just 5 years prior in 1990 there were 2.6 million people globally connected to the internet.  By 2000 there was north of 300 million and 2005 there was 1 billion users.  Today according to internet world stats there are more than 4 billion users or more than 54% of the world population. 

There is a trend where the connections to the internet are for devices and not computers or phones.  Connected devices include outlets, thermostats, refrigerator, 

Image shows the possibilities of connectivity of devices and not computers or phones.  

The number of connections in the USA are catching up with the population.  According to the Statistics Portal,  the number of internet users are at 275 million.  With the US population at 330 million, that is almost 85% of the population.  People are connected to the internet like never before.  What i failed to find is how many devices are associated with any given internet connection.  I for one have 3 computers, 4 iPad, 2 phone that are regularly used and another 4 as backup, Direct Tv account, a smart TV and a 1TB cloud drive.  And now we have Refrigerators, cars, cameras, and other “smart devices” like lights, door locks, electrical outlets, house thermostats and so many more items connected to the internet. 

So when you are wondering what the internet of things is all about, think about how many devices in your home are connected.  Think about how they interact.  Think about how much information is floating around on the internet about each one of your devices, and who has that access.  While much of that information is designed to make your devices better and operate more seamless, there is the hackability of all this data.  There is a tendency to abuse your information, think about Facebook, google, and the many data breeches from large repositories of user data.  

THIS IS.... the internte of things!! 

Citations:

File:Timeline of web browsers.svg. (n.d.). Retrieved September 30, 2018, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Timeline_of_web_browsers.svg

Internet. (n.d.). Retrieved September 29, 2018, from https://ourworldindata.org/internet

Creative commons

Internet Growth Statistics 1995 to 2018 - the Global Village Online. (n.d.). Retrieved September 30, 2018, from https://www.internetworldstats.com/emarketing.htm 

United States: Number of internet users 2022 | Statistic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 30, 2018, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/325645/usa-number-of-internet-users/

John Wardigo