Pachube Founder & CEO Usman Haque called this "a major step in making the 'internet of things for consumers' a reality."

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We've long been a fan of Pachube (pronounced Patch-Bay) and named it one of our Top 10 Internet of Things Products of 2009. Pachube is an open platform for sensor data. We first reviewed it in May last year and since our last update in October, Pachube has followed through on Haque's promise to develop a viable business model. The Current Cost partnership is a part of that evolution.

The Move From Experimental to Commercial

One of the most exciting things about covering the Internet of Things, is watching the slow but gradual move from experimental apps to commercial ones. I watched - and blogged - this same evolution in the years before Web 2.0 existed (2002-2004) and it's happening again in 2010 with the Internet of Things. Startups like Pachube are literally inventing the business models as they go.

As we've noted in previous posts, up till now Pachube has been mostly used for experimental applications. However, Current Cost may be its first important commercial case study. The Current Cost 'Bridge' enables users to analyze their energy use via a website dashboard, on iPhones and other smart phones, and via Google's energy service, Google PowerMeter.

Pachube is being used for data management on the Bridge, enabling the device to deliver tracking, notifications, comparison tools, and more. The Bridge also has "enterprise level features" such as privacy groups, statistics API, user management and a device provisioning server.

Pachube's New Revenue Models

Pachube now has what it terms a "corporate" service - essentially a third party service for companies that want to connect devices to the Internet. For example Pachube provides bulk accounts to "web-enable thousands or millions of devices," such as electricity meters. Other services include delivering 'out-of-the-box' tools for consumer-facing companies, building communities around products, and developing branded web portals for manufacturers.

In addition, Pachube has added premium accounts to its consumer service offering. These include "value-added features" such as privacy options, statistics/aggregation, greater bandwidth, history and search.

It's great to see Pachube develop its business and we'll continue to track its efforts!

During my visit to Hewlett Packard Labs earlier this month, I spoke to Parthasarathy Ranganathan - a Distinguished Technologist at HP Labs - about this large influx of data onto the Web.

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Like Mayer, Ranganathan compared the online data growth rate to Moore's Law. He told me that it's rising significantly faster than Moore's Law. HP CEO Mark Hurd put it this way in June 2009: "more data will be created in the next four years than in the history of the planet."

281 Exabytes of Online Data in 2009

In her presentation at PARC, intriguingly entitled 'The Physics of Data,' Marissa Mayer noted that there have been 3 big changes to Internet data in recent times:

1. Speed (real-time data);
2. Scale ("unprecedented processing power");
3. Sensors ("new kinds of data").

Mayer went on to say that there were 5 exabytes of data online in 2002, which had risen to 281 exabytes in 2009. That's a growth rate of 56x over 7 years. Partly, she said, this has been the result of people uploading more data. Mayer said that the average person uploads 15 times more data today (in 2009) than they did just 3 years ago.

A Sensor Revolution

Marissa Mayer talked about "a sensor revolution," including data from mobile phones. She remarked that "today's phones are almost like people," in that they have senses such as eyes (a camera), ears (a microphone) and skin (a touch screen).

HP's Parthasarathy Ranganathan used the term "ubiquitous nanosensors," which can have multiple dimensions per sensor:

• Vibration
• Tilt
• Rotation
• Navigation
• Sound
• Air flow
• Light
• Temperature
• Biological
• Chemical
• Humidity
• Pressure
• Location

Ranganathan noted that there will soon be millions of sensors working in real-time, with data sampled every second. He said there'll be lots of different applications for this data; including retail, defense, traffic, seismic, oil, wildlife, weather and climate modeling.

Exascale Web

HP sees its role as providing the computing platform required to deal with this massive influx of data and the complexity of processing it in real-time. Google clearly sees itself as a provider of exascale web services.

We don't know yet which computing or Internet companies will be most successful over the next 5-10 years, but one thing is for sure. They'll have to know how to process and make sense of massive quantities of data flowing through the Web - and do it in real-time.

The ideas in this post come from a session at the recent ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit that I convened. Thanks to the participants!

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As noted in Part 1, sensors and RFID tags are small computer chips that connect real-world objects to the Internet. Increasingly data from these chips is being accessed and processed using mobile phones, which means a world of new opportunity for start-ups and developers.

Buildings & Objects

RFID data could make building mapping automated and much more accurate. It could identify the location of gas lines, the temperature at various locations, how to optimize air flow in a data center, and more. Likewise, in your home you could have sensors deployed everywhere. For example, in your windows to notify you of any damage.

The ground itself can be monitored using sensors. HP Labs has a seismic sensing solution that is currently deployed by Shell. It integrates with Shell's oil and gas exploration systems to sense, collect and store geophysical data.

Parking could be a consumer friendly application for sensor data - telling you where are the parking spaces, in real-time.

Tire pressure monitoring and exhaust monitoring could tie into carbon footprints. But who will pay? Government mandates may be required before this happens.

Many libraries are already using RFID, to enable you to (for example) self check out library items.

Security in buildings is a big area of opportunity. Airports is one obvious example and the advent of biometric passports (sometimes called ePassports) is where we'll likely see a lot of RFID usage.

Speaking of airports, RFID tags on luggage is an application begging to be introduced - as my own tale of lost luggage woe from last year attests.

Collecting tolls from cars using FasTrack is yet another use case for RFID in the physical world.

Environment, Green & Energy

Just as there are plenty of building and object applications waiting to be built on top of sensor and RFID data, there are many opportunities for usage in environmental products and services.

Green Watch is a project that we reviewed at the end of last year. It's literally a watch, which measures ozone levels and noise pollution. The watch connects wirelessly to the wearer's mobile phone and sends updates to Citypulse, an open platform for receiving and storing environmental data. It's still a prototype at this point, but (ahem) watch out for it in the future.

Another prototype project is the Common Sense Research Project at Berkeley, which measures air quality. The project is "developing mobile sensing technologies that help communities gather and analyze environmental data." At the Mobile Summit, this notion led to a discussion about the business case for this technology. Whose fault is it for poor air quality; for example can polluting companies be held responsible for air pollution?

One Mobile Summit participant wanted a smart garbage pail that auto reorders an item when you have thrown it out. That segued to a discussion about paying by the weight of garbage. RFID could also be used to match a trash can with its owner!

Sensors could be used to detect the 'green quality' of a food producer, for example allergens.

Smart meters from power companies is something that is already happening. Also water - for example IBM's water management system for the city of Dublin. It measures things such as "the movement of pollutants in fresh water, marine and oceanic environments."

As you can see, some of these ideas are already in production (HP Labs, IBM). Others are in prototype, still others are but a twinkle in the proverbial milk man's eye. Now let us know, in the comments, your own ideas for mobile apps that make use of sensor and RFID data.

Image credits: Datascan; Common Sense Project

As part of a patriotic statement about how the U.S. leads the world in Internet innovation, Verizon chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg said today that the "'Internet of Things' will infuse intelligence into all our systems and present us with a whole new way to run a home, an enterprise, a community or an economy."

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Seidenberg said that "in a 4G world, wireless will connect everything" and that "there's really no limit to the number of connections that can be part of the mobile grid: vehicles, appliances, buildings, roads, medical monitors."

AT&T have also been making noises about the Internet of Things. At the recent CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas, AT&T announced a partnership with a company called American Security Logistics (ASL), to "wirelessly connect a series of location based tracking devices that can be used to help keep tabs on an array of valuables - from people to pets to pallets." The first product will be a cargo shipping tracking and monitoring application. Other products in the pipeline include pet tracking, child safety and Alzheimer's patient monitoring.

Both Verizon and AT&T are positioning their wireless networks as key parts of the emerging Internet of Things.

Cisco is another company getting in on the trend. At CTIA, Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior said that by 2013, the number of devices connected to the Internet will reach 1 trillion - up from 500 million in 2007. According to Warrior, "we're heading into the Internet of Things."

Warrior sees high growth in the Internet of Things. "With more machine-to-machine connections and wireless sensors everywhere," she said, "the Internet is no longer just an information superhighway [but] a platform that will transform many industries."

These bigco utterings remind me of when the term 'web 2.0' first began to creep into corporate speak, about 2005. It's still early days for the Internet of Things, but prepare yourself to hear a lot more of this new term.

ReadWriteWeb has been at the cutting edge of defining and explaining the nascent Internet of Things - see our extensive archives for more information. If you're new to the topic, check out Top 5 Web Trends of 2009: Internet of Things and Top 10 Internet of Things Products of 2009.

McKinsey sees two categories for emerging applications: "information and analysis" and "automation and control." Many of the applications listed are for large companies or specialized industries (for example automobile manufacturers). But consumers should take note too, because there will be a lot more data about us flowing onto the Internet.

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McKinsey defines Internet of Things as "sensors and actuators embedded in physical objects [...] linked through wired and wireless networks, often using the same Internet Protocol (IP) that connects the Internet."

In the "information and analysis" category, McKinsey firstly lists tracking behavior. An example is insurance companies installing location sensors in customers' cars, allowing them to base the price of policies on "how a car is driven as well as where it travels." Another example is Tesco's use of sensors to capture shoppers' profile data via membership cards. According to McKinsey, this "can help close purchases by providing additional information or offering discounts at the point of sale."

On the B2B side, McKinsey points to companies using sensors to track RFID tags placed on products moving through supply chains. We've written before about IBM's activities in this market.

The next information and analysis application is enhanced situational awareness. This is when large numbers of sensors are deployed in infrastructure such as roads and buildings, in order to report on real-time environmental conditions such as weather or temperature.

Sensor-driven decision analytics shows how revolutionary sensor technologies could be, without most consumers even realizing it! The report explains that some retailers are presently studying ways to gather and process data from shoppers as they flow through stores. Sensor readings and videos will be able to "note how long they linger at individual displays and record what they ultimately buy," data which McKinsey says "will help to increase revenues by optimizing retail layouts."

The second major category for Internet of Things apps in this report is "automation and control." By this McKinsey means "converting the data and analysis collected through the Internet of Things into instructions that feed back through the network to actuators that in turn modify processes."

The first class of apps listed under this category is process optimization, for example for chemical production and assembly lines.

Next is optimized resource consumption, for example power companies that provide so-called 'smart meters' so that customers can better manage their power expenditure. This is particularly useful for companies that use a lot of power every day, because they can "shift energy-intensive processes and production away from high-priced periods of peak energy demand to low-priced off-peak hours."

The third and final automation and control use case is complex autonomous systems, which McKinsey calls "the most demanding use of the Internet of Things" because it involves rapid, real-time sensing of unpredictable conditions. For example the automobile industry is developing systems that can detect imminent collisions and take evasive action.

The report ends by saying that the Internet of Things holds great promise, but there are many issues to resolve - including privacy, legal and cost of sensors and actuators. However McKinsey thinks that energy consumption efficiency and process optimization are "good early targets" for businesses using Internet of Things.

Overall, this is an informative, useful report for companies who want to get their heads around the potential business opportunities of the Internet of Things. For ReadWriteWeb's ongoing coverage and analysis of this important trend, check out our Internet of Things archive and subscribe to our RSS feed.

If you're unsure what the world will be like when everything is connected to the Internet (hence the term 'everyware'), then read on for Greenfield's acute observations and examples of what's already happening. This will be a multi-part post, published over the course of this week.

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What's Changed? Mobile Phones!

Since it's been nearly 4 years since Everyware was published, I asked Greenfield how Internet of Things has evolved since that time. In particular I wanted to know if anything major had changed since the book was first released.

He replied that the mobile phone has been the biggest change. According to Greenfield, the "single biggest failure of imagination in the book was that someone would decisively re-imagine what the phone is."

I think he's being overly harsh on himself, as the iPhone wasn't announced until January 2007. So in 2005/06, nobody but Steve Jobs and some of his team at Apple could have possibly imagined what the phone would turn into. It should also be noted that Adam Greenfield was a very early adopter of mobile blogging (he coined the term "moblog") and he is currently Nokia's head of design direction for user interface and services. So if the evolution of the mobile phone since 2005/06 surprised even him, that tells you something about how much of a sea change the iPhone has been.

RFID

One thing that hasn't changed as much as first thought is RFID. Greenfield ruefully noted that "this stuff is taking so long." There are scenarios in Everyware that haven't come to pass yet, such as RFID in credit cards and home theatres.

However he thinks that RFID will eventually be usurped by superior item identification and tracking technologies. See this ReadWriteWeb post for more background on the state of RFID.

The City

Currently Adam Greenfield is working on his next book, called The City Is Here For You To Use. I asked him what cities he's been most impressed with, in terms of their use of Internet of Things technologies.

He mentioned Korea and Singapore, noting also that municipalities in East Asia have made a lot of progress.

According to Adam Greenfield, a more interesting question may be: what kind of responses are those cities getting from companies? He said that technology companies like Cisco and Intel are responding with products and services for Internet of Things.

I asked Greenfield what he thought the differences were between adoption in Asia and the U.S.? He replied that public motivation in Asia may be one differentiator. In many Asian countries, there is a belief in 'progress' and a future life that will be better because of the "heroic investments" of governments and big companies. He said that quality of life can be delivered as a service in a place like Korea, for example an Internet fridge. Whereas westerners tend to question the utility of things like that.

To get a wider understanding of Internet of Things, I recommend you purchase Everyware now on Amazon. Neither myself or RWW is making any commission on this, I just think this book deserves a wider audience. Stay tuned for more from Adam Greenfield in Part 2 of this series.

A new report on airport satisfaction points to opportunities for more sensors. RFID to track interactions between prisoners and guards? It's happening now. And a hospital that will use sensors to alert staff of the location and medical histories of patients in crisis, on a big electronic whiteboard centrally located. Those are our three top stories for today. (Editorial selection assisted by OneSpot.)

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It's Time for Better Technology in Airports
A Smarter Planet Blog

IBM's Steve Hamm discusses J.D. Power's newest report on customer satisfaction with airports. "There have been some important technology advances in airports, such as near-ubiquitous wi-fi access and plenty of check-in kiosks, but it seems like two of the biggest headaches could use some more technology help. Those frustrations, of course, are baggage handling and security checkpoints."

I feel an iPhone app or two coming along in the future, don't you?

RFID wristbands used to monitor guard, prisoner interactions
RFID News

RFID News reports on a system to be implemented by an Illinois prison that will interface between "read/write technology" for "real-time, electronic recordkeeping, tracking, and reporting."

Accountability for guards sounds good. Lossless RFID tags in prisons sounds like the end of believable jail-break movies though, doesn't it?

Versus RTLS to Support Ministry of Health Performance Goals at Rouge Valley
rfid-ready

Rfid-ready reports on a Canadian hospital's use of an innovative "Real-time Locating System" to reduce the time patients wait for care, to respond to emergencies and to maintain continuity of care. The hospital was chosen by the Canadian government as one of more than 20 to focus on reducing Emergency Room wait times.

Sounds like something that could bring some sanity to an insane situation - the emergency room.

For a broad overview of this sector, see: Top 5 Web Trends of 2009: Internet of Things and 5 Companies Building the Internet of Things.

Now prepare yourself for POGS' return - POGS 2.0, if you will. Except this time around, the chips have been wired for the digital age. And today, the "game" is a social network called FaceChipz instead of a old-fashioned variation on marbles.

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FaceChipz: If POGS Was a Social Network

FaceChipz is a new social networking site designed just for kids. Intended primarily for the "tween" set who's outgrown children's websites but hasn't quite aged into Facebook yet, FaceChipz merges real-world networking with an online component. After purchasing a starter set of five chips, the child has their parent register an account for them on the FaceChipz website. Then the game begins.

The child registers all their chips online using the unique identification code found on the back of each token. When all the chips have been registered, they can be distributed to friends. In return, the child's friends will hand them their FaceChipz. When the exchange is complete, the child returns to the computer to register the new codes from the chips they've collected. The end result is a social network of friends with a physical counterpart in the real world - a brightly colored collection of FaceChipz that can be toted around just like POGS were decades ago.

Social Networking Training Wheels

Parents will appreciate the fact that the FaceChipz network offers a more secure and private environment for their kids than traditional social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. No strangers can solicit friendship requests here - the child's only online friends are those they've connected with in real life. There isn't even a search mechanism for friends to find each other without first trading chips. While that design decision is obviously meant to keep FaceChipz sales steady, the company claims it has another goal as well: to prepare children for the online world of social networking. Reads the company website, "FaceChipz wants to help kids stay safe, but also enable them to communicate using today's technology platforms...If your kids are savvy enough to make appropriate real world friendships, we believe that those relationships will be suitable and appropriate for the digital network they create."

Other privacy protections are offered too. For example, the code on the back is only valid upon first entry. Afterwards, if a lost chip ended up in a stranger's possession, they couldn't use the code to connect to the child. Also, FaceChipz profiles are designed so kids are only permitted to post a limited amount of information and their email address is not stored. FaceChipz makes sure that none of their site's pages are indexed by search engines. Finally, when the child is ready to graduate to a more adult network, their account can be permanently deleted.

Will FaceChipz Become the New POGS?

All the elements are there that could make FaceChipz a success: collectible tokens, an online element and parent-friendly company ethics. There's another bonus, too: the chips are cheap. A five-pack is just $4.99 at ToysRUs and the one-time site registration fee is only $1.00. If anything, the fee is only there so mom or dad get involved and are made aware of the child's online activities.

However, in this day and age, FaceChipz may be too innocent a portal to attract tweens. On a web filled with insane YouTube videos and the (often disturbing and occasionally pornographic) webcam-hopping service, Chatroulette, will a "your first social network" site even have a chance? Will today's youngest generation take to a modern equivalent of POGS or have they seen too much already? Only time (and sales figures) will tell.

Thanks to Springwise for spotting this.

What's interesting though is that the savings are calculated based on the actions measured by small battery-powered, wireless sensors. You stick these sensors on your bike, thermostat, showerhead "and even your keychain."

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Green Goose is a web-based service, along with "a very low-cost set of Savings sensors." - these are literally green eggs (see picture to the right). The web site tracks specific actions and behaviors from users - then computes that into dollars saved.

Co-Founder Brian Krejcarek told ReadWriteWeb that's "like a Twitter feed of personal green savings."

Here's how the sensor part works: the sensors communicate with a "Green Gateway" that then sends messages to the web site. The Green Gateway - which is also "egg-like" - has an Ethernet port that connects to your network hub via a router. The bike sensor measures miles ridden. Green Goose also plans to offer sensors for your automobile, shower (hot water), and thermostat (heating and cooling).

In the future, Green Goose might also be able to pull savings data in "from open APIs like that proposed by Google Power Meter for savings earned by using less electricity." It also plans to eventually move beyond energy to capture savings earned from making "other lifestyle decisions."

You can get started today with a "Green Goose Bike Sensor Kit," which retails for $49 plus $10 for postage. The Portland and San Francisco-based company is currently in talks with the BTA (Bicycle Transportation Alliance) in Portland and they're already installed "in a number of coffee shops."

As well as consumers, the service is targeting employers with a "a unique sustainable savings benefit" offering for their staff. One of the features for employers is managing and auditing details for the IRS bike commute tax credit.

Green Goose is currently in pre-production and running beta trials. Right now it's offering 100 Savings Kits for bicycle owners.

Eventually this type of connection, between sensors and mainstream services like banking, will be commonplace and probably won't need to rely on gimmicks such as green eggs. But for now, Green Goose seems like a cute, interesting Internet of Things service for green conscious early adopters to try out.

On the panel were Ulla-Maaria Engeström (Thinglink), Doug Krugman (Personal Commerce), Michael Silverman (ThingD). Dyson began by noting that people have always had identities and there are countless services for that, but things don't have that yet. So, she asked, will there be networks for things?

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Ulla-Maaria Engeström explained that her company Thinglink is about defining the relationships people have with things - who made them, who designed them, who manufactured them, who sells them, who owns them, who likes them. She said it is the "social graph of things" and that "every thing has their own social network."

Engeström said that Thinglink began in 2005 by giving things identities via their product codes, a.k.a. Unique Identifiers. "People and things, they're not too different," said Engeström, "they all connect." Thinglink is in private beta, it currently has 4000 beta users and launches later this Spring.

ThingD is creating a registry of things, according to Esther Dyson. Michael Silverman from ThingD explained that his company is building "a database around all of the things in the world." Things like consumer products, horticulture, even pets.

ThingD also has a platform built on top of the database, which connects people to the things in their lives. What interests you, what you like, own, or want to sell. It's about how people identify themselves with things. Silverman said that the database currently has about 50 million things, maybe "north of 60 million." There are a few thousand early adopter users right now.

Dyson then introduced the company REZZ.IT as "what eBay did for selling, [REZZ.IT does] for renting." Doug Krugman from REZZ.IT explained that "things have a network and their own audience." His company is about managing stuff: scheduling, classifying, content management, pricing, and more. Seeing what other people have, sharing things.

Business Models for Networks of Things

Dyson asked how REZZ.IT makes money off this. He responded that vacation rentals is their biggest market right now. REZZ.IT wants to provide people with the tools to manage those vacation rental assets, plus add a "transactional engine" to them. Other 'things' coming soon to REZZ.IT include apartment rentals, boats, planes.

ThingD's business model is linking people to things. They have signed up product retailers to beta test this.

Thinglink's business models are twofold. Firstly affiliates, for example people purchasing objects in photos. Their second business model is lifestyle brand communities - connecting people who like a company's products, already own them, etc.

Conclusion

Overall, a very interesting discussion about the evolving networks for things. If web 2.0 was largely about social networks for people (which you can certainly argue it was), then the new generation of the web will add things to those networks and create new networks.