Showing posts with label IoT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IoT. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

CONCEPT: Logistics

Logistics: This is the art and science of moving, transporting and/or delivering things (material, hardware, equipment or supplies), services or even people across geographical space. Crucial considerations here include: efficiency, coordination, timeliness, security and cost; or, in general, the appropriateness of the means in relation to the mission. Vehicular breakdown and safety of passage are, likewise, always a twin-concern requiring management's 'unblinking' attention and capacity for effective response and even 'networked' intervention.

To have good logistics, you must in the first place have clarity of purpose and a good strategy to realize it. Otherwise, whatever carriers and other transportation resources, routes, personnel or passion and related communication mechanisms that you may have will be of little avail. Thus, the adage that "if you don't know where you're going, you won't get there" tells us less than half the truth. You must have the means (of necessity dependable) to get there, as well. As a minimum, then, strategy should be based on a robust form of  SWOT analysis or its equivalent. In, a robust and pro-active 'supply chain management' system is a necessity for consistent success.

Partly driven by considerations of security (against international terrorism, in particular, as well as piracy) and of efficiency, logistics and IoT have increasingly become intertwined in 'heavy-duty' commercial shipping around the world. In hindsight, one can see that IoT was always implicit in both commercial (for example, in the worldwide cargo-delivery 'transactions' of FedEx and DHL) and humanitarian airfreight (for example in UNHCR and Red Cross operations). It was even there, in its 'infancy', in passenger air-travel -- and most pronounced in long-haul flight. 

But there has been, through it all, a periodically morphing sort of reverse 'cultural lag' (see, also, Godin) here -- between a 'driving' adaptive culture (that is, growing safety and security concerns and needs) and a 'responding' material culture (for example, as alluded to already, the technologies required to give assurance of passenger and shipping-line security). Quaintly, the intuitive tail was wagging the material dog here. With recent advances, however,  IoT's value-proposition has caught up with the need (the demand) for it. This proposition has indeed become more and more explicit and even routine in its effect.
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Sunday, February 04, 2018

Smartphones, Blogs and Websites: IoT in the Pocket, and Everywhere



Going by the accepted definition of The Internet of Things, the Smartphone is an underrated or neglected but integral node in IoT, even though it's hand-held. Ama? Let's face it, security agencies know this only too well, and profit from it in day-to-day surveillance and "The War" -- against everyTHING.

 By the same token, every website and every blog and every such Thing which is set up to transmit and receive and even autonomously respond to certain signals 24/7 -- that is, without active participation by the 'owner' -- is an IoT sender, receiver or terminal/terminator.

 Anecdote:
In an apparent lapse in mobile-phone (not necessarily smartphone) transmission protocols nearly a decade ago now, I believe, 'everyone' in Nairobi began receiving messages on their phones about their 'current' locations. It was 'worse' for motorists. Whenever you turned into the next road or street, you got the message. We, collectively, didn't like the idea that Big Brother was trailing, and knew exactly where we were at any moment. I was personally more intrigued than upset, actually.

 There was a public outcry, and the 'glitch' was sorted out soon enough. Everyone was relieved. Glitch? No, "Back To The Future." Nowadays, of course, most Kenyans who follow the news know that individuals -- law-abiding or 'criminal' -- can be tracked by security authorities through their phones.
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Friday, March 10, 2017

IoT: The Internet of Things ~ A Few Tweets and Posts

What is the Internet of Things (IoT)? Meola (2016) gives us a useful definition of IoT in this passage:
"The IoT refers to the connection of devices (other than typical fare such as computers and smartphones) to the Internet. Cars, kitchen appliances, and even heart monitors can all be connected through the IoT. And as the Internet of Things grows in the next few years, more devices will join that list."

 And he elaborates his conversation under six important topics:

 1. Basic definitions of IoT-related terms that ease us into better informed and more sophisticated conversations and narratives. These terms are: IoT device, IoT ecosystem, entity, physical layer, network layer, application layer, remotes, dashboard, analytics, data storage, and networks.

 2.  IoT predictions, trends and markets -- up to 2025.

 3. IoT industries, looked at from the interconnected perspectives of consumers, governments and ecosystems.

 4. IoT companies. The list he gives features mostly American companies, but this will obviously change as the rest of the world checks in with new ideas and orientations.

 5. Top IoT platforms at present: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, ThingWorx IoT Platform, IBM's Watson, Cisco IoT Cloud Connect, Salesforce IoT Cloud, Oracle Integrated Cloud, and GE Predix.

 6. IoT security and privacy, including the growing risk of hacking and other or emergent forms of cyber attacks. 

 READ: Andrew Meola (2016) What is the Internet of Things (IoT)?

 In 2015 and 2016 I released five IoT-related tweets (incorporating two pertinent posts) which I wish to share with you. I'm assuming that you haven't seen them yet among my many tweets and re-tweets. Here they are:

  1.  23 Feb 2015
    Big Q for : in what forms does manifest itself in the ?
  2.  22 Jan 2015
    While U were otherwise engaged, here's what I said about a year ago (already!) , , ,

  4.  2 Jan 2015
    to 
    Why? It doesn't waffle or lose sight of 's core aspect: /ICT-enhanced logistics on a globally expansive scale.


  7.  12 Nov 2016
  8. =
  9.  11 Jul 2016
    and ,

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Monday, July 11, 2016

Sociology and Work Redesign

I last taught this graduate course, Sociology and Work Redesign, in May-August 2008. Time flies, as the saying goes, and my focus has shifted elsewhere for various reasons in the intervening period. But as I was going through some of my old papers this evening, I came upon a copy of the Class Presentation Topics which we covered that semester. I thought to myself that it contained some themes and technical considerations that still resonate, a short eight years later, in today's palpably more tech-mediated, and increasingly IoT-infused ways of the globalizing world. And so it occurred to me worthwhile to share the list on this blog. So here it is: Class Presentation Topics.

The course was built around the following objectives:
"To address the following questions from different perspectives: Why redesign? What are the main aspects of a redesign project? To critically outline, in historical perspective, the concepts and practices fundamental to work redesign around the world. To undertake a comparative analysis of selected models, techniques and case-studies of work redesign: from conception to execution. On the basis of that analysis, to encourage class to construct innovative models (or designs) of work organization under given assumptions. In summary, to build national and regional capacity for work redesign, and to reinforce that capacity with relevant theoretical and empirical understandings of the socio-technical underpinnings of the work-place within formal establishments or group contexts."

 You may wish to click here to find the full course outline. I think sociology has much to contribute to on-going conversations about work design and redesign.
MORE READINGS (update)
Laston, George, "What EA learned about building successful mobile app infrastructure"

McDonald, Clare (2016) "Internet of things increases demand for tech skills" ComputerWorld.com 
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Saturday, August 22, 2015

On Drones: Tweets and Retweets


  1.  Apr 26Kenya
    Sorry, here's the correct link to my piece on "The Dice, The Drones..."
    View conversation
  2.  Apr 26Kenya
    To suggest that the West has tough(er) regulations on drones due 2 mo congested airspaces is 2 simplify & distort the facts
    View conversation
  3.  Apr 26Kenya
    See what I wrote about drones>> . Even the is lately jittery about drones flying everywhere
    View conversation1 favorite
  4.  Apr 26Kenya
    Kenya shd never surrender the operation of any drones to UNHCR, given our experience with their management of
    View conversation
  5.  Mar 25
    A playwright turns drones into drama
    View summary
  6.  Jan 30
    Drones Are Now Appearing on Afghan Rugs
    View summary
  7.  Jan 22
    While U were otherwise engaged, here's what I said about a year ago (already!) , , ,

  8.  Jan 21
    Defence ministry to regulate use of drones on safety fears - Politics and policy -

  9.  Oct 23
    E-commerce firm targets local market with drones delivery - Corporate News -

  10.  15 Aug 2014
    Conflict Economics: Gaza War Helps Market Drones via

  11.  10 Aug 2014
    U.S. fighters carry out new air strikes to protect stranded Yazidis via

  12.  19 Apr 2014
    Drones from the deep: Pentagon develops ocean-floor attack robots - Washington Times: via
    View summary
  13.  15 Apr 2014
    Game of drones: Why Google and Facebook are going head-to-head for control of the skies via
    View summary
  14.  15 Mar 2014
    Australia to buy giant surveillance drones

  15.  27 Dec 2013
    Drones exposed them. A robust UN force has driven them off & will keep them out as DRC gains internal strength & external clout
    View conversation
  16.  15 Dec 2013
    How Drones Could Revolutionize Farming via

  17.  15 Dec 2013
    Drones Could Revolutionize Agriculture, Farmers Say via

  18.  6 Dec 2013
    Amazon drones are 'fantasy,' says eBay CEO | PCWorld via [Will drones deliver parcel bombs just as easily?]

  19.  9 Apr 2013
    Drones? Pshaw. U.S. Navy Unveils Its Laser Weapon System By via

  20.  3 Mar 2013
    Drones over there, total surveillance over here via

  21.  8 Feb 2013
    Drones Memo Not Shared With Senate Staffers: Dianne Feinstein via

  22.  9 Dec 2012
    Seasons/swarms of drones, the new locusts, in our long future. Their good 'side' will pale versus the harm/devastation they'll bring
    View conversation
  24.  7 Sep 2012
    Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Drones via


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