Internet of Things
What is the Internet of Things?
The Internet of Things is a somewhat abstract name for a relatively simple idea. It is essentially everyday things being able to connect to the internet and to the other things in the IoT. There’s a bit more to it and there’s no one definition for it but this is the overall idea. Nowadays, there are so many things that belong to the IoT that it’s unlikely that someone hasn’t seen or used one before. A great example is just about anything that starts with the prefix “smart”. Smartphones, smart TVs, smart watches, etc. These things all connect to the internet wirelessly and sometimes to each other.
Why is it important?
The IoT allows for endless possibilities, one of the benefits of the IoT is its improved accessibility. Consumers can use IoT products without having to physically be using it by controlling their product through other IoT products. The greatest benefit of the IoT is in its ability to collect data. With the IoT, we can learn more from the data collected in order to cure diseases, prevent disasters, find more precise market segments, etc.
Management Information Systems and IoT
MIS students should know how to extract data and create meaning from it. With the IoT becoming more and more popular, businesses are able to get an exponentially increasing amount of data from consumers. The Data Analytics course teaches students how to store, ETL, and analyze data. The IoT collects data but sometimes data is stored in differently on different IoT products. Data Analytics covers the basics on how to extract data from a source, transform it into the necessary format to create a single standard format and then load it all together into a single database. The course also teaches students how to properly analyze data so they can make meaning of it. In the end, the entire Data Analytics course is related to the IoT in some way or another.
Use of the IoT
An example of a non-smart IoT product is the Philips hue LED bulbs. Using an app on the smartphone or tablet, users can change the color of their light bulbs however they like or have it change according to the environment! There are many settings such as changing the colors of the light bulbs based on what is being watched or having them adjust based on a schedule.