Impact of IoT on political systems

Research commentary for connected World

1. In your opinion, how important of a shift in life and business can we expect the Internet of Things to create in the next 5-10 years?

The previous eras of the PC and Mobile have now moved onto the connected everything world of Internet of Things IoT.

Perhaps the biggest change will be in four areas: Presence, always connected, Privacy and intelligence.

Digital will be in remote and home locations, it will follow you on your daily journey. It will never sleep, always connecting to the internet 247, 365.

This will have and is already having ramifications for personal privacy and ethics as well as government and legal issues.

Beyond the sensorizing effect and feedback loops of the IoT it will also give rise to more rich data and fuel the algorithms. Machine learning, deep learning and Artificial intelligence that will drive a new kind of Smart experience and augmented reality.

2. What are some of the ways in which the IoT could impact or even "disrupt" political systems?

Social media with mobile devices is already disrupting politics with the American Elections and Trump. Apart from this popularism enablement of social connected services it is also giving rise to issues for cyber security and the WikiLeaks phenomenon. Even the hacking of Clintons emails is an example of this and the state or stateless impact of individuals has a great impact.

But beyond this is the impact on political governance and investment in innovation impact. Internet of Things is creating new connected markets, examples of exploiting tis trend can be seen in the EU commission and the H2020 fund seeking to support the Digital Single Market creation. Even with the challenges of Public Private Partnerships PPPs the disrupting of IoT connecting products with customers across countries is a difficult challenge for Political borders that seek to control and encourage national or multi-national investment. The often reported difficulty of the Digital Single Market to compete with the large American Technology giants and the rising Asian competitors is putting the EU between a hard place and a rock in trying to invest in new IOT technologies while dealing with the paradoxical effect of digital lowering entry barriers for competitors or disrupting the game through A.I. and new technology such as VR and AR jumping over existing technology investments. Politicians are often left struggling trying to understand what the technology is actually doing to the national markets, its impact on Taxation income and how to respond in legal and in education investment to attract and grow nations and GDP.

3. Will these potentially disruptive changes be positive, negative, or a mix of both?

It can be both positive and negative. Increasing automation will create higher productivity boosts for the economy, but at the same time will be a threat to jobs. If IOT can automate many services from ordering food , to more complex self driving cars and into more skills work such as legal and financial services trading, how does the government need to support this while maintaining voters elegancies to their constituencies? We have already seen some push back on the globalization of jobs in America and American politics seeking to repatriate work back home from overseas. This is a think edge of the wedge where predictions of 40 to 50% of jobs in the next two decades could be replaced by automation. The level of complaints and voter issues could be massive and potentially highly emotional.

4. In what way(s) might the IoT change politics from a politician or government's standpoint?

How politicians and governments need to connect with citizens on social media is critical in towards 247, 365 always connected public. Rumours and speculation as well as data privacy and leaks will be critical for management of police, terrorism and commercial wellbeing of the nation. But more subtle will be the creeping or creepy, depending what your perspective is, of A.I. and Augmented reality devices starting to influence and monitor or impact your day to day choices and living standards. It because the connect with IOT is that its abut sensors and feedback loops that are automated and augment or replace human needs for intervention. What do sales do, or service desks or building facilities management do if these are all smart sensors, natural language speak processing or smart appliances that do all of this is background for you. Its your identity and personal data that’s being captured but if many basic decisions can be automated without the need for interventions then what kind of new society could evolve. Certainly a more media and tech savvy government is needed to build smart cities and smart transport systems if all this is to work

5. In what way(s) might the IoT change the political process from a citizen's standpoint?

It is already creating much more insight and visibility of politicians as have been soundly and with some unpleasant vulgarity that has exposed politicians. But such as the recent 3rd runway at Heathrow vote and other political and geopolitical events, IOT with media and social web sites will enable citizens to “seek, see and speak “local-global” because IOT devices will enable access to such things. For governments this will increase visibility and accountability but also a threat where democracy is under threat or not desired.

But IOT will also enable better citizen services in remote Health care to measuring climate change and decarbonization targets to managing deforestation, water supplies and resources and wildlife under threat. In these areas IOT can be seen to have a real critical importance for humanity and managing its transition into a connected world and limitated resources while preserving the planet for future generations.

6. How do you envision Big Data impacting how governments run in the future?

Big data is already being used by the NSA and others to monitor citizens and national interest. It will also be using for better open data services for smart cities and services to drive a connected economy. The government has a key role in enabling this new IoT infrastructure to work to in turn drive higher productivity and competitiveness.

7. What hurdles exist in applying and/or leveraging IoT technology to various aspects of the political process?

As seen with the development 5G telecoms standard the challenge is probably threefold. How to develop standards to support access to new connected markets to encourage adoption and wide use by customers and citizens; secondly, how to invest in the infrastructure and spend in the right areas such as telecoms and data services to enable the infrastructure to support the massive growth of IOT devices. But, thirdly how to control and manage the regulation and legal issues to control competition and market development without “loosing your shirt” to competition acquiring start-ups or larger national companies overseas.

8. How can we overcome these hurdles?

Better political and government understanding would help; just making tactical investments and gesture speeches in fashionable forums is not adequate for the on coming wave of IOT that will transform every part of industry. A good publication to read in the 4th Industrial Revolution by the World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/ Many of these ideas are not new but it is the convergence of sensors, massive networks, massive cloud computing and services that the IOT is the “tip of the spear” into this new era. The international bodies like the WEF, OECD, IMF and others already know this but its more whether national governments can move fast enough to keep up compared to other nations?

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