Today’s blog was written by Victoria Plack of our sister company, Sonexis.
Simplifying Our Future
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a very intriguing and exciting topic. It is one that has allowed for our imaginations to run wild with ideas and concepts of technology and connectivity, even in relation to things we do not currently associate directly with modern technology (like clothing or farming). You can imagine, for those of us already within the business of modern technologies and innovations, the possibilities that IoT inspires us to imagine are endless.
With regards to Conferencing, these technologies are built around the desire for convenient communication and connectivity. IoT essentially promotes not only convenient connectivity, but also perceptive connectivity, where our continued integration into the network of the internet allows it to learn from us, recognize our habits and predict our next steps, wants or needs.
What if conferencing technology had the ability to recognize our habits and respond to them accordingly? In discussing this topic with Compunetix Director of Marketing, Robert Haley, he imagined a few ways in which this concept could come to life; “What if you regularly do a Monday 11:00AM conference call from your conference room? The IoT could check your phone’s GPS, see that the lights just came on in the conference, and note that it’s 10:55. At that point, the smart [IoT] system could dial-out to the host or just send a reminder [to participants].” He further suggested something as simple as the conference bridge recognizing that for each meeting, the host sends out a copy of the PDF to all meeting participants and what if the machine could pick up on that habit and do it for you? Or even check all the user’s calendars to suggest the next best available meeting time?
In addition to convenience, IoT also presents us with the potential for significant advances in communication safety. For example, we’ve already heard of major cell phone application vendors and developers promoting built-in functionality that disables all notifications if the user is in a moving vehicle. Thinking one step further, what if future vehicles could be notified via IoT when emergency vehicles are approaching and automatically turn down or mute the radio volume so the driver can take necessary precautions?
While this idea of ultimate connectivity has the potential to simplify our everyday lives, we must also consider how vast and devastating any sort of glitch or breach could be in a world that relies so heavily on the network. This is a concern that is brought up by many who speak of the potential IoT has, though there does not seem to be any slowing down in advancing these connections. Jacob Morgan of Forbes puts it plainly and simply stating what we should expect for the future of IoT; “Anything that can be connected, will be connected.”
The fact of the matter is that IoT will continue to grow and impact our way of life and, ultimately, we will grow and learn with it. There may be bumps in the road ahead but consumers should feel confident that as the network becomes more and more integrated into every aspect of our lives, we will become less skeptical and start to wonder how we ever functioned without it (think of GPS). And while we sometimes wish we didn’t rely on technology so much (as I’m sure many of us do), we also recognize and appreciate all the ways that it enhances and often simplifies everyday life. IoT has a lot of great potential to impact our lives far beyond our imagination and that’s something we should all look forward to witnessing.