On @GNLamp and #iotboost – spread the word

Alex has finally been able to launch the Good Night Lamp, open for pre-orders now. The first 100 made out of walnut are limited edition so if you’re keen on connected products then this is your chance to get a beautiful one (tip: there are only 38 sets left at the moment!). I’ve seen early prototypes and they’re truly magical. It’s taken her 10 years to get this far. The internet of things might be a buzzword and everything but actually getting funding for a company in the sphere, building a team, liaising with factories, manufacturing them, getting them to market – not easy at all. I know this from conversations with her, and I admire her for getting this far. I look forward to seeing Good Night Lamp grow.

On a related note, I also feel it is important to help internet of things startups get the leg up they need early on. Much of what I do with the Omnicom Innovation Group is about this. The Connected Digital Economy Catapult is a platform to help the best digital ideas built by UK startups go the distance. They’re holding the Internet of Things Boost event on October 3rd in Liverpool where experts from manufacturing, wireless connectivity, use research, big data, finance and marketing will be on hand to provide advice to these startups on their business problems one-on-one. I’ll be the marketing person on the team that will be holding clinics. If you are, or you know anyone, working with connected consumer products or industrial hardware, please ask them to come along (it’s free to attend) and spread the word amongst your networks.

For the #iot fans: bookmark this infographic from @iotwatch

Very useful graphic tracing the process involved in building a connected product from Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino. Read about the workshop she ran to arrive at this here.

Connected Products. Image by Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino.

Excited to see the progress towards @better_futures Internet of Things Academy by @superflux and partners

I’ve been following Sony’s Futurescapes project for a while, as well as what Superflux are doing with them. (I think it’s one of the best things Sony are investing in as a brand). Superflux have just blogged about the second phase of the work they are doing with partners like Technology Will Save Us and the Forum for the Future to build an Internet of Things Academy, something that is much needed and at a time when the vast amount of knowledge out there, such as the content produced by the Internet of Things meetups and the EU Internet of Things website and council can be taken to an actionable next step. There is a growing audience of people interested in and equipped with the knowledge to explore the internet of things, as well as kids growing up now who have an appetite to build and hack using technologies like Arduino and accessible devices like the Raspberry Pi. The larger community can have a role to play in making sure the future for IOT is bright through initiatives like the IOT Academy. Well done, all involved.

Loving @onefinestay’s Sherlock

The thing I like about Sherlock is that it isn’t a product you’d typically expect from an accommodation-listing & concierge service like One Fine Stay. Airbnb’s Wishlists feature is nice but it’s something I would expect from a service like theirs. One Fine Stay have ventured into the IoT world with Sherlock, and when I try to think of other services that have done the same, it’s mostly energy-related, like British Gas/AlertMe or Aviva Drive. It’s certainly exciting: electronic keys that allow you to control your doors from afar, making the problem of lost keys or opening the door for people you know when you’re upstairs that much easier.

.@GNLteam on Kickstarter – back it now!

Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, Adrian McEwen and the team at Good Night Lamp have put the project on Kickstarter to get the funds that will help the little family of lamps come to life for people across the world. I’ve backed it, and can’t wait to give one to my parents. Go for it.

http://vimeo.com/56586373

.@iotwatch on how we can expect the internet of things to evolve

Alex is a friend of mine and currently sourcing funders for her new start-up, the Good Night Lamp. She gave a talk recently that referenced Roo’s documentation of the fridge of the future (not).

Transforming products into services, by @mikekuniavsky

I just came upon this presentation by Adaptive Path and ThingM co-founder Mike Kuniavsky on the Internet of Things, which is becoming a catch-all phrase that encompasses more and more these days, as he rightly says. He talks about the connected web converting products into services, something I’m beginning to think a lot. I went into some of his older presentations, also worth looking at, and especially liked what he says about unboxing and why the phenomenon has lost lustre – because we grew up in a world where physicality of objects was important, but now ‘our objects have become less important than the services they represent’. Also, how one of the biggest challenges in the future is going to be deciding what NOT to do.

Lots of good stuff there.

Products are Services, how ubiquitous computing changes design

View more presentations from Mike Kuniavsky