The public sector will bring the IoT into the mainstream
If policymakers can manage to bring the right stakeholders into the room
The Internet of Things is one of those industry terms that people love to toss around when envisioning the wildest scenarios for connected technologies. From smart forks that stop you from slurping to intelligent branded whiskey decanters, the number of quirky yet completely useless IoT use cases seems to outnumber any genuine practical alternatives. The result: the conversation around the IoT has become a cacophony of kitschy corporate thought experiments rather than a serious dialogue surrounding the importance of research and investment in the future of connected technologies.
The problem is that practical IoT applications aren’t sexy. Most of the applications for IoT technologies are, well, practical. Companies currently leading with IoT technologies are using data from sensors to track autonomous vehicles, or to monitor power usage in homes. And many of the think pieces that have been written on IoT consider the implications this might have for consumers in the private sector. There is, however, a more lucrative demographic that hasn’t quite been targeted by the tech space in the talk around IoT to the extent it deserves to be: the public sector.
Governments are the perfect proving ground for real, practical and effective IoT applications. They have a considerable stake in creating efficiency using mass data collected from connected devices, the infrastructure on which to employ them, and the budget with which to do so. Cities could increase citizen safety by collecting sensor data in mass transit anomalies, or roadway temperatures. Governments could design secure and responsive touchpoints between themselves and citizens to create trust and public engagement. Councils could display real-time road status updates on live signage to reduce congestion and create more sustainable mass transit. The practical possibilities may not be as interesting as a device that lets you give your dog treats via robot (for the modest price of £300), but they have some important implications for the way we live and interact within civic society.
IoT public infrastructure in practice
Many government institutions have begun experimenting in IoT systems, or they are already implementing them in public spaces. In London, for instance, city hall has recently partnered with the University of the West of England to develop a network of sensors to gather transport data at the newly renovated London Bridge station. Data collected by the sensors ranges from monitoring humidity, temperature, strain pressure — and even fallen leaves on the tracks (the British railway system’s greatest enemy). Once the data is collected, the system then uses a machine learning programme to anticipate potential faults before they happen.
Other major cities have followed suit. Madrid has an entire IoT department managing local services from garbage collection, to recycling to the monitoring of green spaces. Milton Keynes, just north of London, uses IoT sensors to monitor energy and water consumption in order to optimize its distribution throughout the city. Cities long embattled with traffic problems, like Los Angeles, are using connected devices to improve how traffic lights communicate to quell gridlock and reduce the strain on bottlenecks. The impact of these initiatives boils down to one thing that all public authorities hold front and centre — budget. Optimising these systems in the long term ideally means that It is cheaper for governments to do their jobs, and to offset the strain on the public that pays for it all.
Furthermore, there is an existing onus to further and develop IoT systems, especially in the UK. Speaking in June last year, Sadiq Khan noted the importance of exploring IoT for public infrastructure. “To solve the biggest problems our great city faces, I am calling for a . . . more collaborative approach than ever. We need our public services, major universities and technology community to mobilise their resources in new ways and partner with us to make London a fairer and more prosperous place” Khan told reporters. The city has made good on its plan by developing a programme called Smart London which includes five strategic pillars for connecting the city. They range from developing new touchpoints between the public and government to build civic engagement, to improving the literacy around IoT for private sector partners.
The central government here in the UK has followed suit. They have launched a programme called IoTUK with many of the same principles on a national level — to be “the world’s leading national IoT programme.” Largely, the government initiative has been focused on establishing stakeholders for IoT across the public and private sectors and bridging partnerships between them. Across multiple levels of government — at least within the UK — it’s clear that there is a desire to develop partnerships and expand the use of IoT technologies throughout the country.
Barriers to public infrastructure IoT
While governments have begun to dabble in IoT programmes, there are several major hurdles to building a functioning IoT for public infrastructure that need to be considered moving forward.
High upfront costs
The first hurdle to the progress of smart cities the upfront cost of developing the IoT infrastructure. No government at any part of their elections cycle wants to have their face on the bill of a project that doesn’t promise quick return — and IoT projects are long term solutions to long term problems. The result then is that instead of taking top-down approaches to the mass adoption of IoT infrastructure, many governments rely on smalls scale vanity projects with most of the investment coming from the private sector. The result at best, is a spotty, slow, and ineffective implementation of IoT, at worst it’s a public distrust of the IoT as a whole.
Connectivity issues
Another major issue with IoT implementation on such a large scale is the data connectivity issues that come with it. What happens when thousands of devices are using a network simultaneously? How does one get these devices connected onto a network securely and at cost? What about quickly switching networks if there’s a problem? The urban environment only exacerbates these issues. Especially in cities like London, dense materials can inhibit radio signals needed to connect the IoT devices to their network. Furthermore, there is a risk that — should a network fail — governments won’t be able to ensure that public safety infrastructure and emergency services could still function at their full capacity. IoT technologies embedded in our public infrastructure need secure, safe and powerful mechanisms to connect many thousands of potential devices at once — and that comes at the cost of nimbleness across the system.
Lack of education and public engagement
Perhaps, the biggest hurdle to functional IoT in public infrastructure is a severe lack of awareness when it comes to what the IoT is and how it can work for the public, leading to a severe lack of public engagement when it comes to its implementation. A recent report from ATG shows that, in the UK, 68% of people don’t know what a smart city is. Moreover, a greater proportion of people find the concept worrying rather than beneficial when it comes to safety and security. Study upon study has shown that the more unaware of and uninvolved in the public is when it comes to the conversation of IoT, the more aware they are of its implementation — particularly when it comes to public spaces.
Reframing the conversation
The key to mitigating these barriers involves reframing the conversation around the IoT in public infrastructure. Public institutions would do well to create bridges between themselves, the public and private entities to create dialogue around the issues facing civil society and then to explore where IoT applications may be useful.
We’ve addressed the question of securing the IoT elsewhere, but there is an argument to be made that increasing the dialogue will also positively impact how accountable stakeholders in IoT infrastructure will be when it comes to monitoring information across devices and networks. Here we reach a painfully simple conclusion. Namely, that awareness, education, and collaboration are the keys to a functional, smart public infrastructure.
If, as famed Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan once suggested, “the unity of the modern world becomes increasingly a technological rather than a social affair” then we surely would do well to at least all be in the same room while we deliberate what that unity looks like.
