IoT – review of critical issues

Science – research transformation of the Internet of Things (IoT) has a number of colours and shadows, many dimensions including technical, social, community, financial, economic and civilization. This transformation has many wide development roads but also numerable pitfalls and traps. It does not take place solely at the level of scientific and technical progress and innovation. It preliminarily takes place in a complex socio-political-economic context, narrowed for simplification as social acceptance and education only. Such acceptance, for example expressed simply by demand and market popularity, for simple items supplemented by useful functions, such as an iron that recognizes the type of fabric and matches its work accordingly, a completely autonomous vacuum cleaner, etc., is trivial. We aim at much deeper relations of IoT with society. If IoT were only adding such functionalities, it would not be worth the time to consider it here. IoT causes a lot of confusion for much more important reasons in many areas of life. Somewhere further on the potential paths of IoT development, it has been noted with interest, but also with anxiety, the possibility of its empowerment as local but also global, superintendent surveillance system, gathering enormous amounts of information, creating knowledge and making autonomous decisions. Potential subjectivity must include such attributes as acquiting from the creator, autonomy, consciousness, morality and further building by the society the whole legal system around the new entity. It will not be a single entity, it will be a whole virtual society, with electronic people. The consequences can be far-reaching and appear as an inevitable option on such a scale for the first time in the history of our human society. Overcoming certain barriers recognized by us may mean that the intelligence and consciousness are not only attributes of the human biological mind. Such reasoning, not without a reason, encounters strong resistance. However, there is a fundamental difference between the opposition to some genetic research and the potential modification of man himself, and the opposition to machine building, a system of superintendence that far exceeds the possibilities of a single man and of entire societies

A Mobile Healthcare Solution for Ambient Assisted Living Environments

Elderly people need regular healthcare services and, several times, are dependent of physicians’ personal attendance. This dependence raises several issues to elders, such as, the need to travel and mobility support. Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) and Mobile Health (m-Health) services and applications offer good healthcare solutions that can be used both on indoor and in mobility environments. This dissertation presents an ambient assisted living (AAL) solution for mobile environments. It includes elderly biofeedback monitoring using body sensors for data collection offering support for remote monitoring. The used sensors are attached to the human body (such as the electrocardiogram, blood pressure, and temperature). They collect data providing comfort, mobility, and guaranteeing efficiency and data confidentiality. Periodic collection of patients’ data is important to gather more accurate measurements and to avoid common risky situations, like a physical fall may be considered something natural in life span and it is more dangerous for senior people. One fall can out a life in extreme cases or cause fractures, injuries, but when it is early detected through an accelerometer, for example, it can avoid a tragic outcome. The presented proposal monitors elderly people, storing collected data in a personal computer, tablet, or smartphone through Bluetooth. This application allows an analysis of possible health condition warnings based on the input of supporting charts, and real-time bio-signals monitoring and is able to warn users and the caretakers. These mobile devices are also used to collect data, which allow data storage and its possible consultation in the future. The proposed system is evaluated, demonstrated and validated through a prototype and it is ready for use. The watch Texas ez430-Chronos, which is capable to store information for later analysis and the sensors Shimmer who allow the creation of a personalized application that it is capable of measuring biosignals of the patient in real time is described throughout this dissertation

IoT-liiketoiminnan mallintaminen

Our world is becoming increasingly digitized. Digitalization has changed and is changing business models at accelerating pace and creating new revenue and value-producing opportunities. We are now witnessing the age where the digital technologies are harnessed for our advantage - as the physical technologies were harnessed in the first industrial revolution. Still, the digital world and the physical world are separated from each other. This is the one significant issue, that the Internet of Things (IoT) is about to change. The vision of the IoT is to connect people and devices and produce a vast variety of new goods and services. As the IoT is a novel phenomenon, it can be a difficult concept to define. It can be difficult to create a comprehensive understanding on what the IoT is and what kind opportunities it has to offer. In addition, The IoT is a complex phenomenon in terms of monetization. It can be difficult to create a comprehensive understanding on where the real value of the IoT comes from. The goal of this study is to to create a framework of possible IoT business opportunities for the target company. This is done by creating a conceptualization that unfolds the different roles there are in IoT business for the target company to take or aim for. In addition to the conceptualization, there is also a need to create better understanding of the customership and value proposition related to the IoT business, and recognize the most important barriers of adoption and capabilities required for managing the barriers of adoption.Digitalisaatio on muuttanut ja muuttaa liiketoimintamalleja kiihtyvällä vauhdilla luoden uusia mahdollisuuksia arvontuotolle. Todistamme nyt aikakautta, jossa digitaaliset teknologiat valjastetaan käyttöön, kuten fyysiset teknologiat valjastettiin ensimmäisessä teollisessa vallankumouksessa. Siltikin digitaalinen ja fyysinen maailma ovat olleet tähän asti erossa toisistaan. Tämä on merkittävin asia, jonka esineiden internet tulee muuttamaan. Esineiden internetin visiona on yhdistää ihmiset ja laitteet ja luoda laaja valikoima uusia tavaroita ja palveluita. Koska esineiden internet on uusi ilmiö, sen määritteleminen voi olla vaikeaa. On haastavaa luoda kattavaa käsitystä siitä, mitä esineiden internet on ja millaisia mahdollisuuksia se tarjoaa. Lisäksi esineiden internet on minimutkainen ilmiö kaupallistamisen kannalta. On haastavaa luoda kattavaa käsitystä mistä esineiden internetin todellinen arvo tulee. Tämän opinnäytteen tavoitteena on luoda viitekehys, jonka avulla kohdeyritys voi paremmin hahmottaa esineiden internetin tarjoamia liiketoimintamahdollisuuksia. Tämä mahdollistetaan hahmottamalla erilaiset roolit, joihin kohdeyritys voi asettua. Viitekehyksen lisäksi opinnäytteen tavoitteena on luoda parempi ymmärrys IoT-liiketoimintaan liittyvistä asiakkuuksista ja arvolupauksista, sekä tunnistaa tärkeimmät käyttöönoton esteet sekä tarvittavat kyvykkyydet niiden hallitsemiseksi

The Ontological Sociology of Cryptocurrency: A Theoretical Exploration of Bitcoin

For millennia, money has been a basal element of everyday life reality in market-organized societies. Albeit money has changed extrinsically (e.g., form, use, utility) countless of times, some intrinsic characteristics remain the same, i.e., money is reified value. But why? What gives money value? Even more crucial, what is money in the first place? This exploratory study delves into the intricacies of money, in particular the revolutionary 21st century pecuniary techno-phenomenon, a cryptocurrency called Bitcoin. Though cryptocurrencies have been the topic of several financial and legal scholarly publications for a few years, we rather focus our analysis on Bitcoin\u27s ontological characteristics under a schema of overlapping theoretical layers: Social Exchange Theory, Marxian Dialectics, and Social Construction of Reality. Our intention is to dissect Bitcoin sociologically and empirically examine its global exchange, consumption, and institutionalization. Consequently, we venture to ask, can Bitcoin redefine the meaning of money and how we relate to it? Reformulate the role of banking? Disrupt the universally accepted objective reality of currency value attached to sensorial experience? Transfer trust from ambivalent human relations to an incorruptible algorithm? Or even become the Internet of money

Redefining success : social justice and the ends of business

Success in business is for the most part defined in financial terms and, because of this, business operations are almost entirely, if not entirely, directed to this end. The principle behind this rationale has been informed by the thought that the best contribution businesses can make to social justice is to focus on the bottom line. By appealing to enlightened self-interest and the high premium people place on freedom, neoliberal economists like Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek argue that maximising profits is necessarily socially responsible. And, moreover, that not to pursue this end is socially irresponsible. Social responsibility is the ultimate justification that thinkers such as Friedman and Hayek appeal to when claiming that the business of business is to maximise profit. Yet this position is internally inconsistent. The position is ultimately justified by what is socially just but this means that in fact social justice, and not profit-making, ought to be the end of business. I shall argue that taking this commitment seriously involves rejecting the idea that the aim of business is to maximise profits. This is not to say that businesses should not make profits, rather it implies that this feature is not what ultimately makes them successful. The central contribution of this project is to resolve the contradictions embedded in the traditional approach to business by arguing that the primary aim of business is the promotion of social justice. To this end success in business needs to be redefined so that it reflects the achievement of its ultimate ends and not simply its instrumental means (profit) to the realisation of these aims. We ought then to revise our fundamental assumptions about the structures and policies that are necessary for business to achieve its real end of social justice

Reprogramming the World: Cyberspace and the Geography of Global Order

We live in a world of “fake news”, data breaches, election hacking, and cyberwarfare. We live in a world in which 280 characters can change everything. Our analog past has been replaced with digital realities. The world itself is being reprogrammed. This statement might seem like a quippy metaphor, but it actually reveals something much more concrete. The central claim of this book is that digital technologies are rewiring the way that society understands and thinks about global order as Cyberspace changes the content of international borders. Understanding these developments is critical to understanding the future of global society

Internet in the European Union: past, present and future of digitalization

openThe Internet is a complex tool that completely changed the world in recent years, enabling fast connections all over the world, and at the same time giving birth to a new digital economy. To better understand this proces, and particularly to understand what lies ahead for the European Union in terms of policy decisions, it is necessary to analyse the history, the economy and the implications of the internet in the international context. These considerations will be used to reflect on the upcoming challenges, in terms of security, privacy and power that the European Union will have to deal with in the upcoming years

The making of smart cities : borders, security and value in New Town Kolkata and Cape Town

The making of smart cities transforms not only infrastructures and practices but also the techniques of urban government and security, and economic processes. This thesis draws on analysis conducted in two research sites: Cape Town, in South Africa and New Town Rajarhat, a satellite township on the outskirts of Kolkata, to present three key arguments. Firstly, and as opposed to mainstream narratives that describe smart cities as seamlessly connected environments, this thesis suggests that urban digitalisation is linked to bordering processes. Whereas critical literature has comprehensively discussed the political implications and risks associated with smart city projects, such as corporatisation and technocratic governance, the specific relations between digital infrastructures and borders, within the urban space, have not yet been discussed. Secondly, this thesis argues that smart cities are inherently security projects, insofar as the deployment of a computing infrastructure of sensing initiates a preemptive apparatus. In security systems, such as the Emergency Policing and Incident Command (EPIC) program in Cape Town, or the Xpresso software for social media monitoring in New Town, algorithms are continuously modelling and acting upon future scenarios; from traffic jams to wildfires, from crime hotspots to citizens’ moods. My third argument is that the computing apparatus of security also serves as an infrastructure of value extraction. Recently, there has been much theorising and debate about security platforms’ economic operations, but the situated modalities in which they extract value from the urban environment remain to be examined. Overall, this thesis points to the socio-spatial, governmental and economic relations that computing infrastructures are generating, or reconfiguring, in the urban environment. These relations articulate distinct processes, including the hierarchisation and control of the urban space, preemptive policies and extractive strategies. Critically analysing these processes allows the registration of the political implications of smart city projects

De-Individuation of the Modern Subject in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. The Case of Self-Driving Cars and Algorithms for Decision Making.

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