building an 'internet of things' ( iot ) technology cluster in brighton

Building an IoT Cluster in Brighton

Needs, vision and strategy

A presentation by Bill Harpley

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Linux | Cloud |Wireless | IoT

www.astius.co.uk

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Who am I ?

Bill Harpley MSc MIEE

Founder and Principal Consultant

Astius Technology

[email protected]

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Overview1. A brief history of Connected Things

2. The Internet of Things explained

3. Policies and Frameworks

4. Anatomy of a Technology Cluster

5. Stages of IoT development

6. Building a Brighton Cluster

7. Long term vision

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A brief history of Connected Things


Mont Blanc 1874

● French engineers built a system of weather and snow-depth sensors on the slopes of Mont Blanc.

● Real-time information about mountain conditions was transmitted to Paris.


Telemetry

“The use of electronic devices to record or measure a distant event and transmit data to a receiver” - Collins Dictionary

● Remote monitoring is nothing new

● Earliest examples exploited the 19th centurytelegraph network


Telemetry applications● Drilling wells for oil and gas

● Space exploration (e.g. Mars Rover)

● Water quality and flow management

● Energy system monitoring (e.g. electricity grid)

● Irrigation systems in agriculture

● Remote monitoring of patients

In fact, the modern world could not functionwithout Telemetry!


Machine communications (M2M)

Direct communication between devices over a communication channel (wired, wireless, satellite).

Examples:

– Vehicle tracking, management and routing

– Meter reading (e.g. electricity)

– Security (video cameras, event detection + alarming)

– Retail point-of-sale (POS)

– Health monitoring of patients in their homes


M2M apps map


The Internet of Things explained


Old technology, new ideas• The basic concept of creating a hyper-connected world

of people and objects has been around since at leastthe mid-90s

• Kevin Ashton – a British academic at MIT in Boston U.S.A.– coined the term “Internet of Things” in 1999

• Much of the basic technology used in IoT has a long pedigree( > 30 years ). Examples: computers, sensor networks,databases, wireless networks

• It's real power comes from a combination of mature andnovel new technologies. Examples: cloud computing, machine learning, data analytics


IoT is very ambiguous● Gartner - " The IoT is the network of dedicated physical

objects (things) that contain embedded technology to senseor interact with their internal state or external environment.The IoT comprises an ecosystem that includes things, communication, applications and data analysis."

● EU-IERC - "A dynamic global network infrastructure with self-configuring capabilities based on standard and interoperable communication protocols where physical and virtual “things” have identities, physical attributes, and virtual personalities and use intelligent interfaces, and are seamlessly integrated into the information network."

One broad vision. Many competing definitions.


Sensing the Physical World


Connecting the Physical World


People & processes


Boundless possibilities of IoT


How many devices?


What's the market worth?


IoT hypermania

No change on 2014: IoT is still at 'peak hype'


Journey through the hype-cycle

Table shows different stages of progression through the hype-cycle for a range of IoT & related technologies.


M2M v. IoT: what's the difference?● M2M – short for “Machine to Machine”

may use 'old' proprietary technologies and communication protocols

focused on monitoring (and perhaps controlling) the operation of a single asset or physical phenomenon

typically leads to 'silos' of data (inaccessible to other applications)


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M2M v. IoT: what's the difference?Internet of Things (IoT) – similar to M2M but with

important differences:

● Utilises common Internet protocols and infrastructure

● IoT will evolve to the point where physical objects can connect, communicate and interact with each other

● Data can be combined from multiple sources (e.g. social media, geolocation, CRM, Weather forecasts) to improve decision models

● Often defined in terms of vertical markets (e.g. Smart Agriculture, Smart Cities, Smart Utilities)

Bill Harpley

Smarter decision making with IoT


M2M v IoT compared


Open Data● Movement towards public and private sector bodies

making their data available for public use

● Such data can be used to build useful applications for citizens

● Just a few examples (click on links):

– Open Glasgow

– London Data Store

– Brussels

– New York

● Nothing much in Brighton


Further reading

• The Internet Society have produced a handy briefing paper ( 53 pages) which you can download here


Policies and Frameworks


A global view of the Internet of Things

● IoT has many transnational champions:

– World Economic Forum (“The Fourth Industrial Revolution”)

– European Commission (sponsored research projects)

– ITU (International Telecoms Union)

– Major corporations such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Cisco, Intel

● Governments around the world see IoT as an engine for future growth of businesses, employment and tax revenues


UK Government funding for IoT● Government funding seen as

crucial to stimulate market for IoT

– seed funding for IoT startups

– funding for HyperCat (£10m)

– funding via InnovateUK

– funding via EPSRC (e.g. proposal for £10m IoT hub)

● Further funding from EU collaborative programmesand competitions (e.g. Horizon 2020)


IoT Clusters in the UK● Major clusters in London, Cambridge, Bristol,

Milton Keynes (and now Manchester)

● Other cities aspire to create clusters (e.g. Glasgow, Belfast, Sheffield, Liverpool, Birmingham, Oxford, Guildford)

● IoT is seen as an engine of future growth for jobs, businesses and civic pride

● Nothing much in Brighton at the moment(but this is about to change!)


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Anatomy of a Technology Cluster

Bill Harpley

The birth of Silicon Valley

● Photo shows famous garage where Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett founded the HP company in the late 1930s

● Formally recognised as the Birthplace of Silicon Valley

● California Historical Landmark #976

367 Addison Avenue, Palo Alto, California


Silicon Valley: the roots of success● Many reasons cited as to how Silicon Valley

took root:

– Government spending in the early days (e.g. NASA space programme)

– Free-wheeling, libertarian, hippie culture of the late 60s and early 70s

– Easy access to capital (and growth of VC community)

– Ability to attract talent from all over the world

– 52% of Silicon Valley startups are now founded by immigrants (not born in US) – figure from 2012

– Read this story from Forbes (and watch the video)


The Silicon Valley business ecosystem

● Think of this as a complete 'ecosytem' to support technology ventures

● This has evolved over half a century to become Silicon Valley

● Not easy to reproduce!


So what's the secret?● Governments around the

world have tried to emulate the success of Silicon Valley

● More recent researchshows that the critical factor is corporate culture

– Intense focus on customer needs

– Strong alignment between Innovation and Business strategies

– Prizes fresh talent and new ideas


The Influence of Culture

● Booz & Company’s 2011 Global Innovation 1000 studydescribes three core profiles that characterise:

– a company’s approach to incremental versus breakthrough innovation

– the role that end-customers play in defining future product needs

● Categories of profile are:

– Need Seekers

– Market Readers

– Technology Drivers

● Let's take a closer look ...


Need Seekers

● Need Seekers: adopt a first-moverstrategy.

– Actively and directly engage both current and potential customers to help shape new products and services based on superior end-user understanding.

– Often address unarticulated needs and then work to be first to market with the resulting new products and services.

– Apple would be a prime example


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Market Readers

● Market Readers adopt a second-moverstrategy.

– They closely monitor both their customers and competitors, but they adopt a more cautious strategy.

– They focus largely on creating value through incremental innovations to their products and being “fast followers” in the marketplace

Bill Harpley

Technology Drivers

● Technology Drivers follow the direction determined by their technological capabilities:

– Leverage their sustained investments in R&D to drive both breakthrough innovation and incremental change.

– Theirs is the least proactive of the three approaches in directly contacting customers.

– They often seek to solve the unarticulated needs of their customers through leading-edge new technology.

– Intel would be a prime example.


Which category performs best?

● The Global Innovation 1000 study showed that Need Seekers were noted for:

– Facilitating the strongest alignment of innovation and business strategies with corporate culture

– Achieving superior financial performance over time.

● Some 46 percent of Silicon Valley companies follow this model, compared with only 28 percent of U.S. companies in the Global Innovation 1000.


Stages of IoT Development


Model for IoT evolution

● Before we talk about building an IoT cluster we need to understand:

– The building blocks of IoT technology

– How we can bring 'connected' products to market

● Here is a three-stage model to help us:

1) Foundation

2) Enablement

3) Marketization

● Note that business opportunities exist within each of these stages


Stage 1: Foundations● This phase creates the essential technologies which

can help us to create IoT products and services

– Sensor technology: needs to be low cost and small form factor (e.g. surface mount packaging) and capable of sensing physical phenomena to required degree of accuracy (e.g. position, temperature, pressure)

– Low-power processors and MCUs: much IoT hardware will be powered by batteries

– Connectivity everywhere: wireless and cellular connectivity will dominate the IoT landscape (e.g. Bluetooth, LTE)

– Power efficiency: benchmark for IoT is now 10+ years for battery life. Will be achieved by improved battery technology, energy harvesting and low-power hardware design


Stage 2: Enablement

● So far, we have a bunch of interesting technologies. This phase is about building scalable infrastructure to enable IoT:

– Security, Identity and Privacy

– Interoperability between connected devices and systems

– Systems and device management (complex system!)

– Development of smart, low-power algorithms

– Reliability engineering

– Implementation of IPv6

– Low cost data storage in the Cloud


Stage 3: Marketization● By this stage we have built the infrastructure to

support ubiquitous IoT

– Smart devices will possess intelligence and connectivity to the Internet

– P2P co-operation between devices may be enabled by edge-computing

– Data may be blended from many sources to build a comprehensive picture using data analytics and visualisation tools

– Applications limited only by our own imagination!


Smarter decision making with IoT (revisited)


What skills do we need?

● Wireless / mobile networks

● Hardware design

● Cybersecurity

● Cloud computing

● Databases (SQL / NOSQL)

● Data analytics

● Machine learning

● Data visualisation

● Software development

● IPv6 networking

● Marketing

● Social media

● Business model design

● User Experience (UX)

● Service Design

● Product Design

● The 3-stage model is a useful guide to helping us decide what kind of skills are needed to build an IoT cluster


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Building an IoT cluster in Brighton

Bill Harpley

The First Digital Revolution● The digital boom of the last two decades was fuelled by growth of

content

– Email, video, web, social media, voice

– But signs of maturity in this sector!

– Innovation mainly incremental (but can still be disruptive)

– Many people in Brighton have done very well of this boom!

– Real danger of complacency and reluctance to change!!

● Prime source of innovation over the next decade will be fuelled by mining of raw data – using technologies such as:

– Sensor networks

– Data Analytics

– Machine Learning

– Data Visualisation16/02/2016 Bill Harpley50

The Second Digital Revolution● Tech scene in Greater Brighton area can ride the wave of the

Second Digital Revolution by embracing emerging technologies and business models:

– IoT, 3D Printing, Blockchain, 5G, Robotics, AR/VR, Wearables

– Business Model Design

● Why embrace these new technologies?

– Graduates need jobs (possible “brain-drain” otherwise)

– These technologies offer best hope for long term business growth and employment

– Broaden the local skills base

– Provide jobs for people displaced by “white collar” automation

– Attract inward investment from big industry players

– Need to compete for talent with other tech hubs (e.g. London)16/02/2016 Bill Harpley51

Greater Brighton v. Silicon Valley


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IoT in Brighton looks doomed?● Oh dear, the outlook for IoT in Brighton

looks pretty dismal

– We can't compete with Silicon Valley

– London sucks in a lot of our resources (talent, ideas)

– Brighton & Hove Council is broke

– We have no Smart Cities programme

– We are not in receipt of cash handouts from Government

● Maybe it's time to admit defeat.

● Or maybe it's time to find another way ...Bill Harpley

“I did it my way.”


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Finding our own way forward

● Here are 8 practical steps we can take to make Greater Brighton a central hub for IoT activity and research

● Think of it as the ultimate “need finding” exercise!

Bill Harpley

1. Support the DigiCat programme

● Brighton Digital Catapult has a long-term programme to develop skills in:

– 'Internet of Place'

– Blockchain

– Data analytics

– Retail experience

● Organises many events and meetings

● Fosters collaboration between business and academia


2. Support the IoT Forum● I launched Brighton IoT Forum meetup group June 2016 aims

of:

– Developing IoT capability within Greater Brighton and mid-Sussex area

– Helping foster collaboration between business and academia

– Attracting big industry names to city (e.g. Samsung, Google)

– Encouraging more participation by women in tech sector

– Building bridges between the artistic, design and technology communities

– Long-term construction of a business eco-system which supports ‘need finding’, innovation and risk-taking

● Membership currently stands at 400+


3. Support the Everynet project● Work has started on the Everynet project

● Aim is to build a dedicated low-power network (LPWAN) of sensors and actuators (switches )

– Open source hardware and software

– Open standard developed by the LoRa Alliance

– Crowdfunded and crowdsourced

– Inspired by the global Things Network

– Open platform for innovation

– Develop new technology skills within the community

● Public workshops will be organised in the near future

● Everynet should be operational by September


4. Harness the tools of Social Innovation

● We do not have the resources to build a Smart City (expensive infrastructure!!)

● But we do have the tools to build aSmart Community

– Civic Engagement: social media and open meetings

– Open Data: used to promote accountability and develop useful applications for the local community

– Hackathons: use as an open exercise in 'need finding' to discover how data can be leveraged for the social good

– Crowdfunding & Crowdsourcing: funding for community projects and local tech businesses


5. Deploy Brighton's secret weapon

● Brighton has a large community of artists and designers

● It also has a large community of technologists

● But they don't talk to each other very much

● 'Internet of Things' is multi-disciplinary, which opens up interesting possibilities for collaboration between the different communities

● More about this later ….


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6. Organise an IoT conference

● An IoT conference would do much to put Brighton 'on the map'

● Just an idea at this stage but I will definitely organise one in either:

– Autumn 2016

– Spring 2017

● Watch this space for further announcements!

Bill Harpley

7. Look for new synergies● IoT Forum Meetup No. 4 was devoted to 'Connected Cars and

Autonomous Vehicles'

● Pattern of convergence between "information businesses" (e.g. Google) and "automotive businesses" (e.g. BMW).

● What makes this significant is that in the Brighton and mid-Sussex area, we have all of the skills to capitalise on this trend:

– Talented academic researchers in our universities

– Good companies in the automotive sector (Continental, Tesla, Ricardo)

– Communities of practice in Product Design, UX, Service Design, Software Development

– Major insurance company (RSA in Horsham)

● Meetup brought people from these diverse groups together to meet and talk to each other (possibly for the first time!)

● Potential for collaboration and new business opportunities


8. Bring stakeholders together

● It's important to engage with all key stakeholders in order to define a common vision and set of goals

● Universities

● Technology Businesses

● Local authorities

● Non-tech businesses

● Community groups

● Digital Catapult

● Wired Sussex

● Chambers of Commerce

● Coast2Capital


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The long-term vision

Bill Harpley

Alternative Futures● Many cities in the UK have a clearly defined

strategy for the future

● Here are a few examples (click to follow links):

– Bristol is Open

– MKSmart (Milton Keynes)

– Glasgow Future City

– Manchester Corridor

– Birmingham Smart City

● To the best of my knowledge, no such vision exists for Greater Brighton


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Brighton Powerhouse● It's important to realise that we have a choice:

– Become an insignificant branch office of London's Silicon Roundabout

– Develop a vision of Brighton as a major centre for research and development of cutting-edge technologies & tech businesses

● I repeat, we have that choice!

● So what follows is my own personal vision ofhow to develop Brighton into major hub for the Second Digital Revolution

● I call this programme Brighton PowerhouseBill Harpley

Brighton Powerhouse: phase 1

● We need to implement the 8 step programme which I outlined previously

● Of critical importance is the Everynet project

– Phase 1 would provide a pilot sensor network along a corridor from Brighton Pier to Lewes (past both University campuses)

– Provide an opportunity for businesses & other stakeholders to explore the capabilities of new data-driven technologies

– Develop showcase projects to demonstrate to the world

● Develop a global outlook by collaborating with similar projects in other parts of the world


Project No.1 : Thingbook

● 'Thingbook' is a concept which is analogous to Facebook

– Can we develop new ways of interacting and manipulating hyperconnected objects?

– How to we give a “face” to the 'things'?

● Provides a perfect platform for collaboration between artists, designers and technologists

● Often known as the Social Internet of Things


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The 'Thingbook' lecture

http://www.astius.co.uk/2016/social-internet-of-things-sociot/

Bill Harpley

Project No. 2 : the Silicon Mile

● Promote the area from Grand Parade up to Preston Park as a high-tech hub for technology businesses ( the “Silicon Mile”)

● Takes inspiration from:

– Shoreditch High Street in London (centre of Tech Universe)

– Ibeacons Living Lab project in Amsterdam

● Everynet would play a pivotal role in this project

● Silicon Mile would help to regenerate the London Road area

● Fusebox and new Sussex Innovation Centre would provide strong technology focus


Brighton Powerhouse: phase 2

● Phase 1 would take 18 months to complete

● In this next phase the goal would be to scale out

– Expand the Everynet project from a pilot to a sensor network which covers the wholeGreater Brighton area

– Continue to build up the Silicon Mile as a hub for technology businesses

– Promote Brighton as “Tech City by the Sea”

– Develop support infrastructure in Finance & Legal to make us less dependant on London


Brighton Powerhouse: phase 3● Phase 2 would take 24 months to complete

● In this next phase the goal would be to scale up

– Provide better support to technology companies to help them scale to 100+ employees

– Work hard to attract inward investment from big players in the industry

● Acid test would be whether we can persuade Google to set up shop in Brighton

– I even have a name for it: Google Pavilion

● Phase 2 would take 3 years to complete


Key take-aways from this lecture

1) We have reviewed the technological basis of M2M and IoT (and discussed the differences between them).

2) IoT develops in 3 stages – Foundation, Enablement and Marketization – business opportunities exist at each stage.

3) Governments around the world see IoT as a strategic source of growth in tax revenue, employment and economic activity

4) We have identified 8 key steps to develop the kind of skills and business environment required to nurture the growth of an IoT cluster in Brighton

5) I have outlined a 3-phase programme called Brighton Powerhousewhich could totally transform the technology scene and make the city a major hub for IoT & other emerging technologies

6) Most important of all, we have a choice as to what happensin the future! We can all play a part in determining that future.


Useful resources

● The Internet of Things Report

● Postscapes

● Thingful

● IoT Forum

● EU IoT Digital Market agenda

● IERC Research Cluster for IoT

● The Blackett review


FREE Event

March 2cnd 5:30 – 8:00pm Brighton Digital Catapult

“Tech Beyond the Screen”

We will be talking about low-power community IoTnetworks, inspired by the Things Network of Amsterdam.

I will be introducing people to the Everynet project and talking about how the local community benefits will benefit.


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Journey's EndAny questions?

Bill Harpley