Now that I’ve had some time off teaching over the holidays I’ve been able to catch up on some reading. I posted about Network Notebook #2: The Internet of Things back in October and even though its only a mere 54 pages, I’d not had the chance to do any more than glance at a few pages.

It is worth a read, partially because its short and free but it does discuss a few interesting aspects of the Internet of Things. I did however find it a very narrow vision as it really only considers RFID as the technology of the Internet of Things. It argues the point well from a pervasive/surveillance point of view (invisible technology, a new means of surveillance) but I find it hard to believe that RFID will be the sole (and possibly even major) revolution of new networks since it is currently a passive technology (on the tag side) and codes/tags are prevalent in nearly all Internet of Things technologies e.g. RFID, datamatrix etc. and related apps e.g. ARtoolkit. Surely tags/codes are the most important thing here, how will tags/codes become a part of our landscape? Will they shape the things around us or will they become invisible? In this last question this booklet is very much a counterpoint to Shaping Things however while the later clearly recognises we are on the cusp of a new era of networks, the former really seems to imply we are well into it – I’m not convinced of that.

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