On things and the internet
design and technical considerations for the ground-up Internet of Things
BarCamp London 6, March 29th 2009
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, CEO & Co-Founder of Tinker.it!

Just Alex
Canadian
Product & Interaction designer
www.designswarm.com
Founded Tinker.it! in 2007 with Massimo Banzi, co-founder
of the Arduino project.
www.tinker.it
Somewhere between the creative industries and technology
provision: interaction design & physical computing
Offices in London & Milan, 10 people, lots of Haribo.

My head at the moment
DIY tools and mentality
Open source hardware & software
Home automation & Smart homes
Economic downturn & Product innovation
Connected devices & Internet of things
Ubicomp & The Creative Industries
Ethernet & Internet

Internet of things
1990 - Networked Coke machine - Xerox park
1998 - Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol - The Internet Society
2001 - Smart fridge concept announced by Tesco
2001 - Orange at home- Smart homes
2005 - Shaping Things - Bruce Sterling
2005 - Arduino is born - Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, Italy
2006 - Nabaztag is launched - Violet
2006 - iPod + Nike is launched - Apple
2006 - Everyware - Adam Greenfield
2006 - LIFT - Blogject workshop - Julian Bleecker & Nicolas Nova
2006 - Near field interactions workshop, NordiCHI, Oslo
2007 - Whattson - DIY Kyoto
2007 - iPhone is launched - Apple
2007 - Xbee takes off with Making Things Talk - Tom Igoe
2008 - Pachube is out of alpha
2008 - Arduino Ethernet shield is launched
2008 - Nick O’Leary at IBM gets his Current Cost meter hooked up
2009 - TinkerKit development is announced
2009 - Tom Taylor gets his micro printer to talk Twitter

Diagram 1
My city
My people
My home
My stuff
Me

Diagram 2
Internet
Data gathering Simplification
Notifications Device Notifications
World

Top down

Internet enabled
Will everything have a socket?

Homes aren’t made to be smart
Mark Cowper - Ethelburga Tower: At home in a high-rise

Bottom up

Aggregation

Programmability?

Building Blocks

It’s all in the hacking
Nicholas O’Leary ‘s Ambient Orb

It’s all in the hacking
Current cost meter hookup to Arduino

It’s all in the hacking
Adrian McEwen’s Twitter to bubble machine

Levels of problem-solving & design

Levels of privacy

Thanks
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mbiddulph/3216759774/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pxlwhr/3359416525/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackbeltjones/3365682994/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7842842@N04/2208672672
http://www.flickr.com/photos/knolleary/3057363366/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelfrenzy/2904093349/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nuttyxander/3206466676/
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, CEO & Co-Founder of Tinker.it!
www.tinker.it // alex@tinker.it