IBM is working to democratize innovation with Internet of Things technology by making it easy for novices to start innovating with IoT. They have simplified access to cloud platforms, protocols, and enabling technologies. This allows more people to collaborate and innovate without barriers. At an IBM hackathon, participants used freely available IBM IoT technologies like MQTT, Node-RED and MessageSight to create applications like a zombie paintball app and a robot controller. IBM enhanced their IoT package with toys and bananas to simply demonstrate drone control. One participant then used the system to propose controlling drone swarms to monitor forest fires more effectively.

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IBM is making an Internet of Things for
Everyone
John McNamara – Senior Inventor
June 2014

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IBM is making the Internet of Things for Everyone
 What do I mean by that?
– IBM is encouraging the 'democratising innovation' with its IoT technology
– It is now incredibly easy to to start innovating, even for a novice.
– and crucially it is incredibly engaging and even...fun!
 How is that important?
– By removing technology barriers we enable everyone to innovate
 Why is this happening now?
– Lots of reasons...
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IBM is making the Internet of Things for Everyone

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Lots of important reasons...
 In the 'old days'...
– The power brokers in the I.T industry centred around the Managers and CEO's
– Very top → down and hierarchical in terms of access to funds for innovation
– Big barrier to innovation in terms of access to resources and technology
 Today we see “The Rise of the Developer” (the technologist)
– Recognition of their importance and influence in the I.T community
– Internet investment → Leading to a peer funding model for innovation
– Internet communications → No need for central workplace for collaboration
– All of these things help lower the barrier to individual innovation...
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IBM is making the Internet of Things for Everyone

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The Biggie : Access to simple to use technology
 Access to the technologies
– to cloud based platforms/services – 'freemium' / drastically reduced cost (BlueMix)
– to lightweight and free protocols (MQTT)
– to simple and easy to use enabling technologies (Node-RED)
 Collaboration with device manufacturers such as Texas Instruments
– so BeagleBone / Sensortag work effortlessly with our IoT tech'
– allowing the IoT 'things' to be wired up, monitored and controlled
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IBM is making the Internet of Things for Everyone

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And by building simplicity into our technology
 Ensuring that our technology is as simple as possible to use
– But no simpler :)
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IBM is making the Internet of Things for Everyone
From sketch Implementation To user

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Letting 'Everyone' know about their new Internet of Things
 Apparently the 'Democratisation of Innovation' begins at home
– We wanted to put together an IoT 'package' we could take on the road
• The idea being to let technologists play with our toys
– Tested it with our own IBM Hackathon (Cluster Level – so a big Hackathon)
• Robopocalypse
• Zombiepocalypse
– Aim was to see how technologists used a combination of free IBM IoT tech
• Refine the package from the lessons learned
• Then take the package on the road
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Technologies used in The Great Cluster Code Off
- IBM MessageSight – developer edition
- MQTT
- NodeRed
- Any other freely available tech'

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What was spawned from our Hackathon?
 The top Zombiepocalypse app'
– “Zombiepocalypse paintball mobile app”
• Using MQTT, MessageSight, NodeRed and WAS Liberty
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Now watch the film...

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What was spawned from our Hackathon?
 The top Robopocalypse entry
– “The Mostly 'Armless Robot”
• Using MQTT, MessageSight and NodeRed
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After some enhancements to our IoT package
1. AR Drones
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Enhancements to our IoT package
2. Makey-Makey
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Enhancements to our IoT package
3. Bananas
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Why bananas?
 In order to impress upon the technologist community that our IoT technology is:
– Simple
– Versatile
– Quick
– Easy
 We demonstrated that we could utlise
– MQTT
– NodeRed
– IBM MessageSight
 Along with some
– Cool toys
– Bananas
 To create an accurate and workable IoT based Drone control system
 Activated and controlled by something as trivial as an instrumented banana
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Did it work?
 Yes
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See the video
 Apart from the fun factor – what impression did it make...

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Did we see any 'Democratised Innovation'?
 If you watch the video on the previous slide you will have seen this man
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Stephan
 Stephan wants to utlise this system to
control multiple swarms of drones
– To be used to monitor forest fires
– And to provide intelligence on
where to deploy resources most
effectively
 Within a couple of hours – Stephan
successfully controlled two drones
flying synchronously with our IoT
technology
– no bananas
– he did also crash a third

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Did we see any 'Democratised Innovation'?
 For me though these pictures hold the most significance
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Thank you
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