breakdown of IoT functionality, from Deloitte. They give 5 general types of services that IoT “things” can do:
Internal state: Heartbeat- and ping-like broadcasts of health, potentially including diagnostics and additional status reporting (for example, battery level, CPU/memory utilization, strength of network signal, up-time or software/platform version).
Location: Communication of physical location via GPS, GSM, triangulation or proximity techniques
Physical attributes: Monitoring the world surrounding the device, including altitude, orientation, temperature, humidity, radiation, air quality, noise and vibration
Functional attributes: Higher-level intelligence rooted in the device’s purpose for describing business process or workload attributes
Actuation services: Ability to remotely trigger, change or stop physical properties or actions on the device.
Examples of IoT in action
There are some pretty well-known IoT products that some of you already use, including:
Nest Thermostat (and others). These allow you to control your AC from your phone, anywhere that you can connect to the Internet.
Smart lights: Same concept, but for lights. You can turn lights on/off from your phone. Phillips Hue is an example of this
Bluetooth Trackers – Tile (https://www.thetileapp.com/) is an example of a Bluetooth Tracker. Put one on that thing you always lose (i.e., car keys). The next time you lose those keys, you can find them again via an app on your phone.
Smart Home appliances – things like Google Home, Amazon Echo, and Apple HomeKit.
Smart power switches – Belkin’s Wemo Insight Wi-Fi Smart Plug is an example. They let you turn the plug (and therefore anything connected to it) on and off, set schedules for the plug, monitor energy consumption and use, etc. You can also connect it to Amazon Alexa and Google Home for hands-free voice control
Health and exercise trackers – Fitbits “fit” into this category, too.
How does IoT affect libraries?
Here are some ways libraries are already incorporating IoT technology into their libraries:
Smart Building Technology: As libraries retrofit their buildings with newer technology (or build new buildings/branches), they are starting to see more IoT-based technology. For example, some libraries can can adjust heating, cooling and lights from a smartphone app. Some newer building monitoring and security systems can be monitored via mobile apps.
RFID: RFID technology (sensors in books) is a type of IoT technology, and has been around for awhile.
Beacon Technology: There are at least two library-focused companies experimenting with Beacon technology (Capira Technologies and Bluubeam).
People counters: Check out Jason Griffey’s Measure the Future project. Here’s what he says about Measure the Future: “Imagine having a Google-Analytics-style dashboard for your library building: number of visits, what patrons browsed, what parts of the library were busy during which parts of the day, and more. Measure the Future is working to make that happen by using open-hardware based sensors that can collect data about building usage that is now invisible. Making these invisible occurrences explicit will allow librarians to make strategic decisions that create more efficient and effective experiences for their patrons.”
Library classes! Libraries are also teaching classes about the Internet of Things. These include classes focused on introducing patrons to IoT technology, and classes that focus on an aspect of IoT, like a class on making things with Arduinos or how to use your new Fitbit.
First real photos of the Red Hydrogen smartphone. The Red Hydrogen is one of the most ambitious phones in years, with a holographic screen, modular upgrades, scalloped edges and the promise of a cinema-grade camera in the future.
Many museums now offer makerspaces and after-school programs, and universities have developed low-cost materials to spark students’ imagination and interest, such as the Carnegie Mellon CREATE Lab
Art museums throughout the world offer virtual tours sorted by collection, artist or decade.
After one of these rich experiences, students can use free resources, such as Skype in the Classroom, to connect with experts to engage in scholarly dialogue to make their experience more meaningful and academically relevant or to interact with learners in other parts of the world.
Open Learning, Educational Media: An Interview with Theo Bastiaens, Newly Appointed Rector Magnificus of Open University and Chair of AACE Edmedia Conference
Since the Open University was founded in 1984, more than 250,000 students have enrolled in courses. The Open University offers courses of study at the bachelor’s and master’s degree levels in cultural studies, education science, law, management, psychology, science and technology. Five of its master’s degree programs were top-ranked in 2017
Learning Tasks — concrete, authentic, whole task experiences that are provided to learners in order to promote schema construction for non-recurrent aspects and, to a certain degree, rule automation by compilation for recurrent aspects. Instructional methods primarily aim at induction, that is, constructing schemata through mindful abstraction from the concrete experiences that are provided by the learning tasks. Design steps:
Design learning tasks
Sequence task practice
Set performance objectives
Supportive Information — information that is supportive to the learning and performance of non-recurrent aspects of learning tasks. It provides the bridge between learners’ prior knowledge and the learning tasks. Instructional methods primarily aim at elaboration, that is, embellishing schemata by establishing nonarbitrary relationships between new elements and what learners already know. Design steps:
Design supportive information
Analyze cognitive strategies
Analyze mental models
JIT Information — information that is prerequisite to the learning and performance of recurrent aspects of learning tasks. Instructional methods primarily aim at compilation through restricted encoding, that is, embedding procedural information in rules. JIT information is not only relevant to learning tasks but also to Part-time practice. Design steps:
Design procedural information
Analyze cognitive rules
Analyze prerequisite knowledge
Part-task Practice — practice items that are provided to learners in order to promote rule automation for selected recurrent aspects of the whole complex skill. Instructional methods primarily aim at rule automation, including compilation and subsequent strengthening to reach a very high level of automatically. Design step:
In Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online, Marwick and Lewis (2017) of the Data & Society Research Institute described the agents of media manipulation, their modus operandi, motivators, and how they’ve taken advantage of the vulnerability of online media. The researchers described the manipulators as right-wing extremists (RWE), also known as alt-right, who run the gamut from sexists (including male sexual conquest communities) to white nationalists to anti-immigration activists and even those who rebuke RWE identification but whose actions confer such classification. These manipulators rally behind a shared belief on online forums, blogs, podcasts, and social media through pranks or ruinous trolling anonymity, usurping participatory culture methods (networking, humor, mentorship) for harassment, and competitive cyber brigades that earn status by escalating bullying such as the sharing of a target’s private information.
Marwick and Lewis reported on how RWE groups have taken advantage of certain media tactics to gain viewers’ attention such as novelty and sensationalism, as well as their interactions with the public via social media, to manipulate it for their agenda. For instance, YouTube provides any individual with a portal and potential revenue to contribute to the media ecosystem. The researchers shared the example of the use of YouTube by conspiracy theorists, which can be used as fodder for extremist networks as conspiracies generally focus on loss of control of important ideals, health, and safety.
One tactic they’re using is to package their hate in a way that appeals to millennials. They use attention hacking to increase their status such as hate speech, which is later recanted as trickster trolling all the while gaining the media’s attention for further propagation
SHARED MODUS OPERANDI
Marwick and Lewis reported the following shared tactics various RWE groups use for online exploits:
Ambiguity of persona or ideology,
Baiting a single or community target’s emotions,
Bots for amplification of propaganda that appears legitimately from a real person,
“…Embeddedness in Internet culture… (p. 28),”
Exploitation of young male rebelliousness,
Hate speech and offensive language (under the guise of First Amendment protections),
Irony to cloak ideology and/or skewer intended targets,
Memes for stickiness of propaganda,
Mentorship in argumentation, marketing strategies, and subversive literature in their communities of interest,
Networked and agile groups,
“…Permanent warfare… (p.12)” call to action,
Pseudo scholarship to deceive readers,
“…Quasi moral arguments… (p. 7)”
Shocking images for filtering network membership,
“Trading stories up the chain… (p. 38)” from low-level news outlets to mainstream, and
Trolling others with asocial behavior.
teenagers in Veles, Macedonia who profited around 16K dollars per month via Google’s AdSense from Facebook post engagements
a long history of mistrust with mainstream media
If you’re a college instructor of communications or teach digital literacy as a librarian, see the corresponding syllabus for this article. It provides discussion questions and assignments for teaching students about media manipulation. To teach your students how to combat fake news online, see my post on Navigating Post-Truth Societies: Strategies, Resources, and Technologies.
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, are able to recover user passwords by way of thermal imaging. The tech is pretty straightforward, but it’s interesting to think about the types of scenarios in which it might be pulled off.