Ritorno a scrivere di Internet of Things (IoT) e stavolta fermandomi sul punto d’incontro con i Linked Data.

Cities across the world are about to enter the next phase of their development. A near invisible network of radio frequency identification tags (RFID) is being deployed on almost every type of consumer item. These tiny, traceable chips, which can be scanned wirelessly, are being produced in their billions and are capable of being connected to the internet in an instant. This so-called ‘Ambient intelligence’ promises to createa global network of physical objects every bit as pervasive and ubiquitous as the worldwide web itself.

The Internet of Things: imagine a world where everything can be both analogue and digitally approached – reformulates our relationship with objects – things- as well as the objects themselves.  Any object that carries an RFID tag relates not only to you, but also through being read by a RFID reader nearby, to other objects, relations or values in a database. In this world, you are no longer alone, anywhere.

In merito ai Linked Data, Sir Tim Berners-Lee  alcuni mesi fa si esprimeva in modo chiaro lanciando  un messaggio piuttosto semplice per  imprese, organizzazioni e governi: rendere i dati disponibili on-line. In tal modo si renderebbero disponibili i collegamenti tra tutti i dati on line, grazie alla tecnologia semantica.

Qual è il legame con l’IoT? Sir Tim Berners-Lee ha detto: “The Semantic Web is a web of things, conceptually. Tying an actual thing down to a part of the web is the last mile “.

Cos’è Internet of Things? In un comunicato  stilato dalla  European Economic  and  Social Committee e dal Committee of the Regions,  dal titolo “Internet of Things – An Action Plan for Europe” (il testo integrale è disponibile presso l’indirizzo  http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/rfid/documents/commiot2009.pdf), si legge:

“Internet of Things (IoT) is not yet a tangible reality, but rather a prospective vision of a number of technologies that, combined together, could in the coming 5 to 15 years drastically modify the way our societies function.
By adopting a proactive approach, Europe could play a leading role in shaping how IoT works and reap the associated benefits in terms of economic growth and individual well-being, thus making the Internet of things an Internet of things for people.”

Internet of Things è stato visto come “metaphor for the universality of communication processes, for the integration of any kind of digital data and content, for the unique identification of real or virtual objects and for architectures that provide the ‘communicative glue’ among these components” . E ancora “RFID is seen as a means of uniquely identifying objects and via RFID in particular, the Internet of Things is being seen as the means of connecting real world items with further data and digital ‘brains’ and vice versa, accommodating too software systems with sensor and context information accessed by RFID tags. What constitutes ‘digital brains’ in this context requires qualification and will undoubtedly be viewed as a collective term for varying degrees of processing capability and intelligent functionality

Di qui al collegamento con la realtà aumentata il passo è breve. Ciò che è meno breve è il tempo necessario per lavorare all’IoT. Una delle domande è se le imprese, i governi e le organizzazioni saranno sono sempre ansiosi (e disposti) di pubblicare online i dati. Tim Berners-Lee parla della
sindrome di progressiva divulgazione della concorrenza, che spinge le organizzazioni a rilasciare in formato aperto sempre più dati.  Questa tendenza resta valida anche in un mondo in crisi finanziaria, dove ci sono tendenze a chiudere, invece, le infomazioni e i dati in genere?

Un’altra questione è se i motori di ricerca (cioè le grandi imprese a cui essi fanno capo, nonché i progetti di cui essi sono la realizzazione)  si spingeranno sempre più apertamente verso  il  web semantico.

Tim Berners-Lee, spiega tuttavia come il web of document e il web dei linked data si colleghino e che ci sono segnali che i motori di ricerca si stanno rendendo conto del potenziale del web semantico.

Ecco la roadmap dell’EU : Strategic Research Roadmap e di seguito la

The Tetherless World Constellation designs new techniques to explore social, scientific, and legal impacts of the evolving technologies deployed on the Web. We use powerful scientific and mathematical techniques to explore the modeling of the Web from network- and information-centric views. We aim to make the next generation Web natural to use while responsive to a growing variety of policy and social needs.

The World Wide Web changed the ways people work, play, communicate, collaborate, and educate. But without new research aimed at understanding the current, evolving and potential Web, we may miss or delay opportunities for new and revolutionary capabilities.
To model the Web, to understand the architectural principles that have provided for its growth, and to ensure it supports the basic social values of trustworthiness, personal control over information, and respect for social boundaries, then we must pursue a research agenda that targets the Web and its use as a primary focus of attention.

Specific topics to be addressed in the constellation will include:

• Semantic Web Technology
• Knowledge Provenance and Explanation
• Privacy, Policy, and Workflow Transparency
• Tetherless and Mobile Web access
• Trust, Social networking and collaboration technologies for the Web
• Network-centric concepts for the defense, industrial and intelligence sectors
• Cyber-infrastructure in general with initial focus on eScience cyberinfrastructure
• Ontology evolution, management and use in diverse disciplines
• Ethical, Policy and Social aspects of Web use and usability

Segnalo anche l’interessante post The world government global database.

E per concludere eccovi un’interessante appuntamento:

“What can the Internet of Things do for the Citizen?” Pervasive Computing Workshop at CIOT 2010