#iotday

Yesterday I was the Global IoT day in Stockholm. Lots of interesting people, talks and projects, lots of things I still do not understand. But I am getting there:) The most inspiring topic of the day was the Physical Web. First, the guys from Upwis, whose team I joined for a couple of hours, introduced me to this yet another great Google’s idea. Then, Scott Jenson himself joined us over Skype for a brief but engaging discussion. 

So what is Physical Web? Simply put, it is a replacement for QR codes and endless apps. It is definitely time to get rid of those wherever possible. As Scott Jenson said, “QR codes are just stupid!”. Low-power bluetooth devices - beacons - send out url links that smartphones are able to scan. The link becomes visible in notifications, and a person could easily follow it without having to scan a QR code (and downloading QR-scanner first!) or getting any other apps. Physical Web frees up people from the necessity to download apps for every small and meaningless thing such as parking payments. Awesome, isn’t it? I believe that Physical Web will soon explode, and even more physical things will be “connected”.

The great thing with Physical Web is that it basically does not have anything to do with IoT, it more of a UX solution. It brings things without any connectivity functions to the Internet just with the help of a little beacon. Similarly to all micro-processors, these beacons will be continuously getting even smaller and cheaper than they are today. Even though PW is not an IoT child, it can definitely be used for all sorts of IoT things. An easy and cheap solution. I wonder what Evgeny Morozov thinks.

There are a couple of difficulties the project has gone through, some of which still remain. At first, ironically, people had to download an app to start using Physical Web. Today, it works through Chrome app. However, Chrome has much lower market share on mobile devices, compared to its desktop version. Here Google made a smart move - PW is and will remain an open platform. Google will not keep it to themselves. Consequences have already followed. Opera announced its plans to integrate PW in their browser. Safari is a big one to be conquered.  

One question that immediately pops up in the head is “How to manage the information overflow and protect privacy?” Google is working on ways for identifying and filtering spam beacons, as well as reducing the number of urls. Google claim that they have no ambition for reinventing the web: (1) security should stay on the web level, not on the beacon level, and (2) PW should mainly provide an easier way to connect to the right part of the web, not replace the web.