Im not sure if we have already passed the Peak of Inflated Expectations (Hype of the IoT), or if we are living in a reality long time desired by IoT pioneers, or if instead we are eagerly waiting the promises and predictions of +50 billion connected devices at the increasingly near future of 2020.
The truth is that the number of posts, blogs and articles related to the Internet of Things (IoT) are far from diminishing, byt in fact has increased in the last twelve months. But I think this year the number of post with original content and interest have decreased or are harder to find among repetitive posts multi-published in blogs, social networks and industry or company webs.
It is normal that when something becomes fashionable as IoT, everyone wants to talk or write about it. Nevertheless, it looks like we have stalled in the absence of actual use cases to tell. Instead we are still harping on the same themes but with catchy headlines.
The Catchy Headlines of Internet of Things
The IoT blogs ban was reopened two years ago for analysts, IT writers, advertisers, marketing departments, community managers and amateur bloggers. We have been using catchy IoT headlines and sometime ridiculous headlines to evangelize and gain traction. But do know that I encourage all of us to include original or informative content, not just clone of other posts.
Lets see some good examples of catchy headlines:
- The Internet of Cars In this post we read how IoT goes much further than vehicles driving themselves.
- The Internet of Robotic Things A headline from ABI research to sell their research study that introduces the concept of the Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT).
- The Internet of Stupid Things An interesting post to explain that we really should use IPv6 for the Internet of Things.
- The Internet of medical Things a post by Stephen Miles that focus on the benefits of serialized identification systems to translational medicine and research.
- The Cognitive Usefulness of the Internet of Things a must read post from Harvard Business Review.
- The Internet of Pointless, Perilous Things A post analyzing 2015 CES event with another hype cycle. This year, its network-connected devices.
- The Internet of Tools Joe McKendrick explains in this post another budding application for the IoT opening up new ways to achieve precision on the factory floor.
- The Internet of nearly everything Funny website from The Guardian that allow visitors search for any thing to see what could happen when you connect it to the internet. Go on. Type something in. Like toilet.
- The Internet of near Things In this post at The Telegraph, Monty Munford said that “The Internet of Things promises to transform the way humanity operates and while some wearables have disappointed, our personal existence and survival is going to depend on this technology”.
- The Internet of Trains In this PTC post by Alex Jablokow we read that rail operators would love sensors everywhere because they are the key technological growth area over the coming decade.
- The Internet of Stars In this post Pasi Hurry started thinking about createing a Global Array, consisting of tens of thousands of amateur telescopes, all feeding data into the same Platform.
Internet of Things Remains HOT, HOT, HOT
As my friend Magnus Melander wrote a few days ago, IoT remains HOT, HOT, HOT and everybody want to be part of it one way or another.
So presumably we will continue to see many blogs, post, articles, videos, tweets, podcasts, and infographics about IoT, with good and bad headlines, with good and not so good content. It is possible that several Startups are already thinking how to store, assemble, organize, easily find and distribute the hundreds of thousands of IoT multimedia content being generated and make money out of it.
I am not sure where IoT will be next years in Gartners Hype Cycle graph, but I expect that we can move fast through the Trough of Disillusionment. As a result we can see a rapid ascent up the Slope of Enlightenment and that we can reach the Plateau of Productivity during the magic 2020 year, with IoT technology broadly used in all industries. It will be then when we could see if the relevance of our catchy headlines will clearly be paying off.
Key Takeaway
There are headlines trying to get our attention using fear or the challenges of Internet of Things, especially security (Connected CarsIs the risk worth the reward?), other headlines, instead, try to lure our imagination towards an utopian future where IoT worlds, robotics and Artificial Intelligence plays a key role in our happiness (Why social robots will change your life).
We know headlines sell, therefore we continue using them as bait to attract and retain our readers and followers. But it is important we do not forget that besides these striking or controversial headlines, the content must be of interest to keep readers hooked, because otherwise I fear we all will end up losing many of our readers and loyal followers on the road.