the Internet of Things‘questions concerning information and society’

Dr. Ben van Lier CMC

Director Strategy & Innovation

Internet of Things Conferentie

Rotterdam, 9 april 2013

Phenomenology (Onthology)

Martin Heidegger The question concerning technology (1954/1977)

‘The essence of modern technology lies in Enframing’

“Thus the question as to how we are to arrive at a relationship to the essence of technology, asked in this way, always comes too, late.

But never too late comes the question as to whether we actually experience ourselves as the ones whose activities everywhere, public and private, are challenged forth by Enframing.

Above all, never too late comes the question as to whether and how we actually admit ourselves into that wherein Enframing itself comes to present” (1954/1977:24)

Informatics

Claude Shannon The mathematical theory of Communication (1948)

“If the number of messages in the set is finite then this number or any monotonic function of this number can be regarded as a measure of the information produced when one message is chosen from the set”

Internet of Things – Machine2Machine communication

Sundmaeker c.s. Internet of Things (2010)

In the context of Internet of Things a thing could be defined as a real/physical or digital/virtual

entity that exists and move in space and time and is capable of being identified either by

assigned identification numbers, names and/or location addresses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cpbbrpgwu2I

OECD M2M:Connecting billions of devices 2012

Devices that are actively communicating using wired and wireless networks, that are not

computers in the traditional sense and are using the internet in some form or another (2012:7)

Systems theory - (epistemology) - I

Ludwig von Bertalanffy General systems theory (1969)

A system or “organized complexity” may be circumscribed by the existence of strong interactions or interactions which are non trivial i.e. nonlinear. The methodological problem of systems theory, therefore, is to provide for problems which, compared with the analytical-summative ones of classical science, are of a more general nature” (1969:19)

Gregory Bateson Steps to an ecology of mind (1972)

A bit of information is definable as a difference which makes a difference. Such a difference, as it travels and undergoes successive transformation information in a circuit, is an elementary idea”. (1972:315)

Systems Theory and Interoperability of Information

Hybrid system Interoperable

Context

Semantics

Technology

Self-referential and autopoietic

Niklas Luhmann Social Systems (1995 English edition)

“Thus the concept of systems refers to something that is in reality a system and

thereby incurs the responsibility of testing its statements against reality”. (1995:13)

Interoperability of Information - II

Hybrid system Hybrid system

Interoperability

“The realisation of mutual relations between two or more systems and entities in order to use these connections to exchange and share information to further

develop activities, functionality or production”.

Context

Semantics

Technology

Context

Semantics

TechnologySys

tem

N S

ystemsS

yste

m

N S

ystems

Interoperability of Information - III

Context

Semantics

Technology

Sys

tem

N

System

s

Double contingency

Context

Semantics

Technology

Interoperability of Information - IV

Context

Semantics

Technology

Context

Semantics

Technology

Sys

tem

N

System

s

System and Environment

Interoperability of Information - V

Context

Semantics

Technology

Context

Semantics

Technology

Sys

tem

N

System

s

Information – Utterance – Understanding

Information – Utterance – Understanding Communication and Action

Interoperability of Information – VI

Context

Semantics

Technology

Context

Semantics

Technology

Sys

tem

N

System

s

Information – Utterance – Understanding

Information – Utterance – Understanding Interpenetration

Interpenetration

Interpenetration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZvDqumaLIY

Interoperability of Information – VI

Karl Weick Sensemaking (1995)

Enactment i.e. the act of assigning meaning

Sense is generated by words that are combined into the sentences of conversations to

convey something about our ongoing experience (1995:106)

Because technology is a crucial part of organizations, it is important to incorporate it into any

discussion of sensemaking (1995:114)

Internet of Things - Context

Paul Dourish

Like ordinariness, context is managed

moment by moment, achieved by those

carrying out some activity together, and

relative to that activity and to the forms of

action and engagement that it entails.

(2004:25)

Network-centric warfare – Internet of Things

“The difficulty will therefore no longer lie in understanding each individual, autonomous, autopoeitic and self-referential system, but in the existence and the nature of the relationship between these systems”

van Lier & Hardjono Systems Practice and Action Research (2011) volume 24 pg. 479-497

Internet of Things and Emergent properties

Andy Clarke Natural-Born Cyborgs (2003)

For better or for worse (almost certainly for both), human technology symbiosis is poised to

transform our lives both as individuals and as collective groups.

At the individual level, new transparent technologies will increasingly blur the already fuzzy

boundary between the user and her tools for thought;

at the collective level distributed activity-sensitive software will enable us to press new

knowledge from electronic trails of use and access. (2003:165)

Vragen?

ben.van.lier@centric.eu

@Ben_van_Lier

www.centric.eu/benvanlier