Cities Wasting Millions of Taxpayer's Money In Failed IoT Pilots 149
dkatana writes: Two years ago at the Smart Cities Expo World Congress, Antoni Vives, then Barcelona's second deputy mayor, said he refused to have more technology pilots in the city: "I hate pilots, if anyone of you [technology companies] comes to me selling a pilot, just get away, I don't want to see you." He added, "I am fed up with the streets full of devices. It is a waste of time, a waste of money, and doesn't deliver anything; it is just for the sake of selling something to the press and it does not work."
Barcelona is already a leading city in the use of IoT and, according to Fortune, "The most wired city in the world". Over the past 10 years, the city has experienced a surge in the number of sensors, data collection devices and automation and has become "a showcase for the smart metropolis of the future". Over the past few years technology companies have sold pilot programs costing millions of dollars to cities all over the world, claiming it will enhance their "Smart City" rating. Unfortunately, after the initial buzz, many of those pilots never get beyond the evaluation stage and are abandoned because the cities cannot afford them in the first place.
Barcelona is already a leading city in the use of IoT and, according to Fortune, "The most wired city in the world". Over the past 10 years, the city has experienced a surge in the number of sensors, data collection devices and automation and has become "a showcase for the smart metropolis of the future". Over the past few years technology companies have sold pilot programs costing millions of dollars to cities all over the world, claiming it will enhance their "Smart City" rating. Unfortunately, after the initial buzz, many of those pilots never get beyond the evaluation stage and are abandoned because the cities cannot afford them in the first place.
Small != Cheap (Score:2)
The maintenance/support/licensing costs of a given gizmo is probably roughly the same regardless of the cost or size of the physical box*. The software is becoming the bottleneck.
The physical size and/or hardware costs seem to get too much attention. A system is a system. Size does NOT matter (that much).
* Call it "Tablizer's Law" if it's not already taken by another pundit.
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A pretty big chunk of the development cost is the software. And software doesn't have much of a physical size. Often the small sized devices tend to have more constraints that require more careful (expensive) software development to pare the software down.
On the hardware side, buying components that are small size, packing more onto a board (increasing the number of layers), designing an on board antenna instead of buying a third party, tends to increase costs until you can have enough volume to drive the c
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On the flip side such devices probably do less, having a more narrow mission (assuming no scope-creep). This may balance out the additional effort of trying to fit tighter hardware constraints.
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The maintenance/support/licensing costs of a given gizmo is probably roughly the same regardless of the cost or size of the physical box*. The software is becoming the bottleneck.
No, what to do with the thing(s) is the bottleneck. As projects like OLPC have shown, simply airdropping in technology and hoping it'll sort itself out is a recipe for little more than millions wasted on, well, airdropping in technology (unfortunately Ivan Krstic's "Sic Transit Gloria Laptopi" has gone 404 or I'd post a link to that).
About fifteen years ago I watched (from the periphery) as the US Govt sank several billion dollars into technology that was essentially an unproven hypothesis dreamed up by ge
This pretty much sums up IoT ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Internet of Things isn't even a thing, it's wishful thinking, and a bunch of random crap "visionaries" with no business plan are all pushing as the Next Big Thing.
It's marketing hype by people trying to cash in, but who otherwise have no idea what it's good for.
It's snake oil, nothing more. Getting fast talked into spending money on pilot projects to help some company achieve their goal of "monetizing your synergies while holistically marketing the awesomeness of IoT to allow you to improve your "'Smart City Rating' means you've been hoodwinked.
If it's so awesome and revolutionary, you should be paying the city to promote your product.
Instead it's just a bunch of bullshit and lies about how unfinished tech with no actual value is going to revolutionize the world.
Every idiot who says "Yarg, teh internet of things" should get swiftly smacked in the head. Because other than they want a piece of the action, not a single one of them can tell you what it is and why you actually want it.
Getting suckered into spending public money to allow some idiot to let you help him figure out what this crap is for is a sure sign you're not doing enough due diligence.
I'm glad to see people like this starting to say "go away and leave us alone". Because there's nothing there yet, just some speculative crap.
It's a solution in search of a problem, and a bunch of people trying to get other people help them figure out the business plan and what this stuff is for.
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Every idiot who says "Yarg, teh internet of things" should get swiftly smacked in the head. Because other than they want a piece of the action, not a single one of them can tell you what it is and why you actually want it.
I've been trying to keep my job skills fresh so I can keep up with the "next big thing". But I'll be damned if I can figure out what the hell IoT really is and why it's taking off. Yes, I know it's connecting things to the internet. But to what end? What real benefit does any of this give you? What makes an internet connected widget worth so much more? What value does connecting it to the internet give you?
No one has ever really given me a good answer.
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By being connected to a global base of knowledge, many problems can escape local optima solutions.
Thats the gist of it. Details and implementations vary and matter, of course.
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So, all you're saying is that "it's going to help you" without providing any details whatsoever on how or why it will be useful and helpful...
Thanks a pant load, Chet
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No, i wasn't saying its going to help you or anyone else. What i was saying is that at the abstract level, its simply a local optimization vs global optimization issue.
Whether this optimization is feasible or can work for any given problem with any given implementation is a different matter altogether.
An unconnected device/thing can at best perform local optimization because it simply does not have larger context and information, global optimization cannot be performed.
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Do you know anything besides marketing-speak? Because I read that and all I hear is the Charlie Brown "Wah Wah" speak.
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Yes he does, and its not hard to think about.
Traffic sensor and bullenin on a highway:
Not connected -> only has local information, cars here are moving, therefore there are no traffic problems.
Connected to entire network of sensors all along the highway -> Now can use all that data to tell travelers that some issue is affecting traffic 2 miles up, traffic has been movign slowly for the last 5 minutes. Traffic at the next point after is moving fine. You can then know that its likely an accident bottlen
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Yes, we have networked traffic monitoring already and it already goes right to the GPS in your car through the satellite connection.
What does that have to do with connecting my toaster, washing machine, and thermostat to the internet?
Re: This pretty much sums up IoT ... (Score:1)
Wow you are dumb. Sure there is market speak but every reply clearly detailed the purpose, you simply are not capable of wrapping your mind around it. The question of IoT is the optimization worth the security risks. With local devices a compromise is limited to the physical devices you can Crack where as connected devices can be cracked in large quantities.
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What does that have to do with connecting my toaster, washing machine, and thermostat to the internet?
Are you saying that embedded internet technologies are only useful if they can be embedded into every electronic object?
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Washing machine, you throw a load of laundry set to wash near the end of the day
You mean like this? [amazon.com] but with more failure modes and a higher cost?
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Everything in your life will be a governance gizmo (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been trying to keep my job skills fresh so I can keep up with the "next big thing". But I'll be damned if I can figure out what the hell IoT really is and why it's taking off. Yes, I know it's connecting things to the internet. But to what end?
It will allow Apple, Microsoft, Google, the US Government, and others to turn every device in your home into a governance/surveillance device. It won't just be your TV watching you a la 1984, it will be your thermostat, your keyboard, your couch, your bedside lamp, hell, not just your bed but your baby's crib and the baby's rattle.
That is why they are so keen on the "Internet of Things." What? You thought it was to benefit you? Really? Then I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you.
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What? You thought it was to benefit you? Really? Then I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you.
Well, I knew that couldn't be true since that's what the marketing literature was pushing. I just didn't (and really, still don't) know what it really is for.
Re:This pretty much sums up IoT ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Because there simply is no answer. It's literally people trying to get other people to pay for the development costs to find out what it is and what it's good for.
There is no consistent definition, no standards, not even any really good use cases.
It's something people have latched onto, and decided that, even if they have no idea what it means, they want to cash in on it.
People have come up with some things around it, but they've not addressed any real world issues like privacy, security, or what the hell to do with it. It's like in the late 90's, where the frenzy happened around "teh dot com" -- if you had a frickin' website, you had VCs throwing you enough money to make some people rich, and ensure there would be a healthy resale market for Herman Miller Aeron chairs.
You didn't need a business plan, a product, or any actual skills in running a business. It was simply a feeding frenzy of stupidity.
IoT is a bunch of people trying to capitalize on a buzzword nobody can define, with technology nobody has yet built, and trying to find other people to help pay for it. It's a though experiment by people who have read far too much science fiction.
Nobody can answer any of these questions because they're still making it up. It's a gold rush to build vapor ware.
It's breathless futurists telling us this is the future without being able to tell us why or how or what we'd do with it. As I said, it's snake oil, nothing more.
It's literally years away from anybody even being able to give plausible use cases, and several years further away from anybody giving a damn about it.
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Because there simply is no answer. It's literally people trying to get other people to pay for the development costs to find out what it is and what it's good for.
That's really what I thought it is.
There is no consistent definition, no standards, not even any really good use cases.
It's something people have latched onto, and decided that, even if they have no idea what it means, they want to cash in on it.
People have come up with some things around it, but they've not addressed any real world issues like privacy, security, or what the hell to do with it. It's like in the late 90's, where the frenzy happened around "teh dot com" -- if you had a frickin' website, you had VCs throwing you enough money to make some people rich, and ensure there would be a healthy resale market for Herman Miller Aeron chairs.
You didn't need a business plan, a product, or any actual skills in running a business. It was simply a feeding frenzy of stupidity.
IoT is a bunch of people trying to capitalize on a buzzword nobody can define, with technology nobody has yet built, and trying to find other people to help pay for it. It's a though experiment by people who have read far too much science fiction.
Nobody can answer any of these questions because they're still making it up. It's a gold rush to build vapor ware.
It's breathless futurists telling us this is the future without being able to tell us why or how or what we'd do with it. As I said, it's snake oil, nothing more.
It's literally years away from anybody even being able to give plausible use cases, and several years further away from anybody giving a damn about it.
So really, what you're saying is that this is the next big empty bubble that some people will get rich off of. And really, the best way to capitalize on it is to do exactly what they did in the 90's and hire a double-talking marketer to sell vapor ware long enough to get bought out by someone else and walk away with millions.
I think I now have a rough plan to fund my retirement...
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Yes, to put a fine point on it: IoT is bullshit, lies, marketing, and empty promises, hawking solutions nobody really gives a crap about, using technology which doesn't really yet exist.
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...and selling it to suckers.
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Indeed. And on top of that, it gives people who aren't professionals in the field the idea that "anyone" can develop for the IoT, which results in any combination of the following:
1. Increased sales of devices that are packaged with spiffy IoT labels for anyone willing to jump on board the trend
2. Non-professional evangelists of IoT devices billing themselves as "rock stars" because, hey, open source is the key to the future (yes, I've had a non-professional tell me this), and if you "know" IoT, you've g
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1993 [youtube.com]
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It gives you a high-margin, shiny, new, trendy TLA thing to put on your product that the marketing people will love.
Oh, you were talking about the consumer... I got nothing.
Connecting things to the internet. (Score:2)
Okay, I know of at least one example. Red lights and traffic signs. In ye old days, each was manually set and timed on the spot.
However, by networking them and sometimes adding extra sensors, that allows you to have a more responsive traffic system, thus reducing delays and increasing capacity, and improving ability to route around damage.
By providing an interface to the public web, that enables devices like traffic aware GPS and eventually self-driving cars to help assist in 'routing around damage/conges
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I don't know about you but quite a few, if not most or all traffic lights in modern America are triggered either by metal sensors or cameras. They already respond to traffic load and have for decades.
However, I can see the point of having smart cars be aware of traffic patterns, including lights, to help traffic flow and to ease congestion. That would be a "good thing".
But what does that have to do with why I would want to plug my toaster into the internet?
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That's a start, but there is also value in having this traffic light know that up the street there's a backup so it might as well let the cross traffic go despite what the sensor is telling it. Or conversely, that light up the street might want to turn green for the group of cars that just went though this one.
Internet connected appliances are dumb. That was tried during the last bubble.
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That's a start, but there is also value in having this traffic light know that up the street there's a backup so it might as well let the cross traffic go despite what the sensor is telling it. Or conversely, that light up the street might want to turn green for the group of cars that just went though this one.
Sure. Assuming they have good enough traffic management prediction software that at the very least doesn't make it any worse those things could be a good idea. But that's a "very hard" problem to solve and there are just some times where you have so much cross flowing congestion that there's not much you can do to clear it effectively.
Internet connected appliances are dumb. That was tried during the last bubble.
Then why are they still talking about it?
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The successful solution implemented by several cities has been to have real live people in a central traffic command centre monitor and adjust lights. It still requires the sensors and lights to be networked, it just doesn't use software to automatically adjust them (at least not during peak times).
Why are people still talking about stupid things? Because people who think you should give them money for their "ideas" have to come up with those ideas somewhere. It's different this time. Really.
It's not just about the 1 light. (Score:2)
That's locally responsive though, not system responsive. For example, where I live there are roads where if the lights were to cooperate ALL directions of traffic could sail through without stopping.
As is, all too often all their responsiveness(they're camera triggered) does is force ALL cars to stop at the light. I see it all the time. Cars pull up and stop on the side street, while the highway is completely clear. Then the highway goes red just as cars are approaching(from the last red light), to let
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Quite possible. It's just that at this point 'internet connected' allows for easier maintenance/updating.
Other options for *successful* internet connected items might be parking meters. Pay for your parking on your smart phone.
Probably not worth it - internet connected street lights. A light & motion sensor is enough for them.
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Great questions. I'm all for putting a microprocessor in a device if that makes it work better, but does my toaster really need to send me a text when my toast is toasted? Do I really need to be able to program my thermostat from The Bahamas? Most people don't even know how to program their thermostat at home, because it isn't all that important to them. You turn it up when you are cold, down if you are hot, and mostly it has to do with your activity level, not some kind of programmable schedule. And
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But I'll be damned if I can figure out what the hell IoT really is and why it's taking off
Having been in this since the 'beginning' of IoT. Let me let you in on a secret. I can tell you how to make tons of money doing it.
Here it is. Have a plan that saves people money. Thats it. All the 'smart connected' crap and 'automated xyz' is buzz. You make real money by making sure you have an effect way to save people money. The easy 'ideas' are stop truck rolls. For some reason union guys are expensive and
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It depends on what it is. Cab companies are finding out that having your cabs (or their drivers) connected to the Internet is very important. We already discovered that hooking refrigerators up to the Internet was kind of stupid.
In terms of "smart" cities, traffic sensors at important intersections and central control can really improve traffic flow. Parking meters you can pay by app are very convenient (provided the fee is reasonable). Busses with GPS on board and an app to show when they're coming see
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This is sort of wrong. It's about networking devices, but not necessarily about putting them on "the internet". But the marketing of IoT these days seems to be more about consumer devices, sometimes things that are not even networked but just have a bluetooth connection to a phone. It's a buzzword. But for every ten stupid consumer IoT devices there's one good one out there that people don't see because it's not consumer oriented.
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Imagine if you will IoT enabled devices interconnected and feeding data and resources to each other. Your smart phone can access your bank account and car so that when you stop for gas it is already paid. No need to swipe a card or look at a prce, it is just ready when you pull into the gas dealership.
Your bathroom scale can send your weight to your refrigerator and if it is outside a preset value the refrigerator could modify your shopping list at the supermarket so that the weekly delivery would not conta
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Electric meters in some parts of the world have two outputs. One output is typically connected to a water heater, which can be shut off remotely in case of excessive load on the grid. It's not a consumer device though, so it doesn't get the hipster awe like the dumb IoT things.
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Around here we have a similar thing that turns off A/C compressors. It's pretty popular because the discount for your bill is significant if you opt to let the power company remotely shut off your air conditioning. I haven't heard of that for water heaters, but around here almost everyone has a gas water heater.
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Funny I have radiant floor heating and it takes hours to change temp. Traditional thermostats also suck at getting it right they cut off heat when the setpoint is reached which do to the lag is far to late and it overshoots. Compare that to a IoT thermostat that can figure this out take outside conditions into account. Mind you radiant floor heating is generally wonderful with a nice ven warmth. Hell all that thermal mass means I lag hours behind in the summer as well.
IoT is a bad idea it's everybody's
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Well, if I'm going to be getting home in the heat of the day, it might be nice to turn on the A/C during the night before so it runs when it's cool out, instead of it trying to cool off a hot house in the heat of the day. Granted, I really don't actually need a networked thermostat for this if I know when I'm going to be back, but I've never seen a regular programmable thermostat that can be programmed to turn the A/C on at 1AM a week from next Tuesday, or something like that.
My current solution though is
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Flushing the toilet from your cellphone is the goal (and trivially easy to implement), but now will take a $50/month cox cable subscription as well as half a dozen licensing fees and a $300 plumber call at 3am because a connector fell off the solenoid that replaced the handle.
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'cause I have all kinds of things that I deal with on a daily basis on my network. HVAC EMS controllers, freezer/fridge temp monitors, security access controllers, cameras, signboards, just to name what I can think of off of the top of my head.
The common thread among these things is that they're all based on communication being useful or essential before the medium is decided upon. It's useful for commercial freezers to alert when the temps approach the liquid point of water. It's u
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The wash cycle takes longer than 24 minutes. It's timing is based on the load size and the wash setting, ie, how dirty the clothes are going in. It's relatively easy to start the wash cycle, forget that there's something in there, and only remember a couple of hours later. That's why I want some kind of notification.
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Internet of Things isn't even a thing, it's wishful thinking, and a bunch of random crap "visionaries" with no business plan are all pushing as the Next Big Thing.
But...but....VC funding! Synergy! Innovation! New thinking!
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Back in the nineties...
The Internet isn't even a thing, it's wishful thinking, and a bunch of random crap "visionaries" with no business plan are all pushing as the Next Big Thing.
It's marketing hype by people trying to cash in, but who otherwise have no idea what it's good for. ...
Instead it's just a bunch of bullshit and lies about how unfinished tech with no actual value is going to revolutionize the world.
Every idiot who says "Yarg, teh internet " should get swiftly smacked in the head. Because other
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The Internet of Things has also been in existence for a decade. What's happening now is that people are coming up with silly ideas, like putting your thermostat on the internet so that you can show fancy charts to your friends. The Smart City approach is a good idea, much more useful than more gadgets for the technophiles to put in their homes. But since everyone is jumping in on the Smart Cities thing it is generating too many "me too!" solutions which ends up giving a bad reputation to the good solutio
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While you are living in a world of info-darkness, having nothing better to do than drinking beer and having sex, the world of IoT is monitoring all those things that really matter.
Don't you know that all those people walking and driving with their face in the phone aren't talking or playing games. They're keeping on top of the status of all the devices in their home, and then texting the report to their friends. LOL! I'm at 29 degrees!
This is the future, right here and now, and the future got here yesterday
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Well, sir, there's nothing on earth
Like a genuine, bona fide
Electrified, six-car monorail
What'd I say?
Monorail
What's it called?
Monorail
That's right! Monorail
Monorail
Monorail
Monorail
I hear those things are awfully loud
It glides as softly as a cloud
Is there a chance the track could bend?
Not on your life, my Hindu friend
What about us brain-dead slobs?
You'll be given cushy jobs
Were you sent here by the Devil?
No, good sir, I'm on the level
The ring came off my pudding can
Take my pen knife, my good man
I swear it's
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Find yourself a bookie and invest.... I mean, you may as well make the most of it.. C'mon! Take a chance! Have your wife dress up like a cocktail waitress and pretend you're in Vegas, *renewing your vows*, yeah, that's it!
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Internet of things is a thing. I've been following the subject of IoT for some time. In the beginning It didn't really look like a thing to me either and that's perhaps because just few months ago it didn't have enough of a shape to call it a thing or I just didn't know enough about it.
In my books, I call something technology if it comprises of set of problems and solutions to those problems. Here's what IoT problems (and solutions) are:
1) Measuring values in physical world and sometimes changing physical
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It is marketing. But many of these internet of things devices existed before the term existed. These are making good return on value in most cases. Smart meters for example. The Smart Cities thing, although it's also marketing, is about taking proven ideas that have been used by utilities and use them for municipalities also. Many cities really are rather backward in how they deal with their infrastructure; they don't know that a stoplight has burned out for example without waiting for people to phone i
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Networked sensors, actuators, and communication devices have been shown to be of value all sorts of applications. Thank god for the visionaries and dreamers that try to make a new reality instead of always looking backwards.
Sure, technologies that change society always get over-hyped at some point before reality bring everything crashing back down, but then the technology adoption will move forward on a more sustainable trajectory.
And... cities should care about and support their innovators if they want to
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Internet of Things isn't even a thing, it's wishful thinking, and a bunch of random crap "visionaries" with no business plan are all pushing as the Next Big Thing.
It's marketing hype by people trying to cash in, but who otherwise have no idea what it's good for.
Ahh you sound like the type of person who is assuming IoT means internet connected lightbulbs. Mind you I don't blame you, there are some stupid marketing companies destroying the product by polluting the definition and the serious companies get stuck.
IoT is about telemetry and there are many MANY good business cases for it, and many large companies providing supporting frame work for the analysis of data. One good example of IoT done right to dramatically reduce cost, and customer downtime has been the pre
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Every idiot who says "Yarg, teh internet of things" should get swiftly smacked in the head. Because other than they want a piece of the action, not a single one of them can tell you what it is and why you actually want it.
The laser was considered to be an invention without a purpose for a long time too.
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Power line communications
Yeah, I hate pilots too (Score:4, Funny)
Always throwing me off planes. I'M NOT DRUNK, I'M FINE!
Why is the city paying? (Score:3)
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No? Well, I guess you have little confidence in your product then.
I'm really hopeful that PRT - Personal Rapid Transit, can help with a subset of a city's transportation needs, reducing dependence upon cars and taxis, where subways and Buses aren't quite responsive enough.
However, the companies working on it just don't have the capital to cover a true pilot program.
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Bonds vs Capital (Score:2)
In which case they've already gotten millions/billions to develop the system, but it's still nothing compared to what deployment in an actual city would cost.
Though in that case it can become something of a bidding process - a city that promises to provide land and at least some funding is going to have more 'skin' in the game, likely making the permitting process easier. So they'll be picked first.
Aw, it's not for you. (Score:1)
It's more of a Shelbyville idea anyway.
Vs Sports stadiums? (Score:2)
Cities should charge sports teams for the right to be known as the City's X, not the other way around.
No governments doing IoT, just infrastructure (Score:2)
I suggested various workarounds if they were forced to put in an I Agree Page by people like the mayor who probably wanted his picture on the I Agree page "Welc
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IoT is a scam, but it's also real. So it's impossible to determine the use, until we shut down the scammers and get the real uses in the forefront.
The city is terrible at things like R&D.
So someone comes in and says "give me $10B and I'll save you $100B." The city says "giving you $10B is too much, how about $5M for a proof of concept?" The guy takes the $10M does just enough to prevent being hu
Cheap pilot (Score:4, Interesting)
I'd propose a cheap pilot for cities:
A cheap plastic label with a 3d barcode on every streetlamp that I can scan with my cellphone and click:
Light broken
Lamp damaged (accident etc)
Lamp is a danger (hanging over street etc)
Ditto for trash-cans, bus-stops, etc
Ditto for street name signs:
pothole
Lots and lots of potholes
crack-house
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Now this is a good idea! Although you might not even need barcodes with good enough gps reporting through an app. Although the barcodes would give more specific context for what to report.
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There is a Town in Spain doing just that, with Twitter: 2,200-year-old Andalusian town runs on Twitter [citiesofthefuture.eu]
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A lot of cities are already doing this...minus the barcode complication. For instance, I'm near Houston, and they have the Houston 311 app [apple.com] that uses your GPS and the photos you provide, along with whatever problem you're reporting.
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This is an excellent idea.
However, I don't think it qualifies as "Internet of Things". My understanding is that IoT is a bunch of small items that connect through the web to make up a large network of productivity. So if each pole had a device installed that can tell when something is wrong and send a signal to HQ, that would be "IoT".
It would also be a complete waste of funds because of implementation and upkeep costs vs your idea.
The point of a pilot (Score:3)
Re:The point of a pilot (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course you are correct, but the purpose of this thread was to continue bitching about IoT so ads can be served and mod-points can be spent.
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Of course you are correct, but the purpose of this thread was to continue bitching about IoT so ads can be served and mod-points can be spent.
I was going to up-vote you, but... I think I'll save those mod-points for a topic that needs me.
BumFi (Score:1)
Internet of Hackable Things (Score:2)
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The only ones actually selling and using I've seen are selling "private cloud" services and calling them "public cloud"
That's their marketing pitch, right?
Because IoT devices are built primarily with "getting to market" in mind, they don't focus on security much (that's honestly not different than a lot of software). A lot of devices have UPnP wide open. Some devices set themselves up as wireless access points, complete with telnet and ftp open, as in "full root access." Some cars are able to be controlled wirelessly. Controlling the entertainment system can be really bad [wired.com], but they were also able to control the brakes.
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As for something like parking meters.....presumably they are all wired to a central server on their own private wires? But physical access is root, so they're probably attackable, too.
Yes, it's like a new SCADA. In fact, most of the IoT objects I've actually worked with were explicitly SCADA compatible. Most of the same issues, including security.
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Why pay to beta test? (Score:2)
Why should municipalities be paying for these "pilots?" They're really beta-testers of new stuff. The companies should be paying for the beta test, not the taxpayers. This applies to all kinds of things, not just IoT, although I know /. commenters really like to bitch about IoT.
In my municipality, the corrupt mayoral administration wants to do waste-to-energy. Okay, great, the problem is that they want to be a beta-test for an entirely new technology - a method of fermenting municipal solid waste into b
It is only costing you money (Score:2)
because you failed to negotiate proper terms.
If you are paying them to make you the guinea pig, you are an exceedingly stupid guinea pig.
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It was an R&D project. Sometimes you get lucky and invent the Internet and change the world; sometimes you merely invent bloated toys. Can't win them all. Pioneers don't always make it across.
-Al Gorre
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Because the city is paying to find out if the idea is viable, rather than the company that wants to sell it.
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Let me Google that for you [lmgtfy.com]