by Angela Guess
Christopher Thomas recently wrote in GovTech, “The Internet of Things (IoT) sounds too small to me. The Internet of Everything (IoE) better describes what it really is. Almost everything with a microprocessor is online, so IoE is just a better fit. The IoT is a network that allows sensors and Web-enabled devices and systems — the things — to communicate with one another. GIS [geographic information system] extends the reach and visibility of IoT data. Sure, it’s wonderful that we have IoT networks transmitting real-time information between systems and other ‘things,’ but what’s the best way to actually express and consume the data that’s constantly streaming? I believe that maps are the best way to see and access that data. Maps complete the picture of all those related objects, binding the information together, telling the real-time story of everything we need to be aware of, from snowplow fleets to floods. The map is the key to expressing the data and making communities smarter.”
Thomas goes on, “A community’s snow fleets are technical marvels. They have GPS transmitting their location in real time. They have sensors that show those back at the office if the plow is up or down. They have machines that gauge the amount of salt they dispense. With every truck in a typical state’s snow fleet equipped with sensors and communication equipment, departments of transportation (DOT) are primed to know the story of their trucks. For example, sensor data from the fleets can be fed into a digital map so that managers can know more about salt distribution in relation to snow-impacted areas. Imagine how much is saved when you know precisely where to salt and how much of it to lay down. Now that’s a story, and it’s made possible [by] merging the sensor data with the map. The story of the trucks would be scattered throughout the enterprise and hard to know. Without a system to aggregate, visualize and make sense of it, to what avail is all that streaming intelligence?”
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