{"id":4378,"date":"2019-02-08T17:26:23","date_gmt":"2019-02-09T01:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/upon2020.com\/blog\/?p=4378"},"modified":"2019-02-08T17:26:23","modified_gmt":"2019-02-09T01:26:23","slug":"desirable-qualities-for-home-iot-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/upon2020.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/desirable-qualities-for-home-iot-systems\/","title":{"rendered":"Desirable qualities for home IoT systems"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/johannes.ernst\/posts\/10158309124767796\">post<\/a> on Lowe&#8217;s killing off their home IoT product, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irisbylowes.com\/\">Iris<\/a>, kicked off an expert-level social media discussion on how IoT systems &#8220;ought&#8221; to be. Here&#8217;s a summary of what people said, grouped by subject, plus some implications. I figure it might be useful to keep this around for myself, and others, so I am posting this.<\/p>\n<p>This is all about home IoT.<\/p>\n<p>On communications and protocols:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>All protocols need to be fully documented. No secret commands anywhere.<\/li>\n<li>Use standards for communications on all levels.<\/li>\n<li>Only make devices accessible over the internet that are proactively maintained (for security reasons)<\/li>\n<li><span dir=\"ltr\"><span class=\"_3l3x _1n4g\">Do not require any device to have a data connection to the internet, ever. In particular, devices must be functional without depending on a vendor cloud.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On identification and security:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span dir=\"ltr\"><span class=\"_3l3x _1n4g\">Every device must have a globally unique serial number, which is printed on the device.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span dir=\"ltr\"><span class=\"_3l3x _1n4g\">Every device must have a unique public key, which is printed on the device.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li>Devices must authenticate to each other when interacting with each other.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On who has control:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The customer must be able to continue using IoT products even after the vendor goes under or discontinues the business.<\/li>\n<li>The central control logic needs to be hackable and replaceable by the customer, so it should be open source or replaceable with open source.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On cost vs benefit:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Products must not cost more than the customer is willing to write off if the vendor goes under, otherwise nobody will buy them.<\/li>\n<li><span dir=\"ltr\"><span class=\"_3l3x\">Maintenance costs for many products are far too high compared to their benefits.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li>We need more valuable solutions to actual problems than just gimmicks like turning the lights green from the mobile phone.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On configuration and maintenance:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Make it easy to reset devices to factory settings.<\/li>\n<li>Must not require complex scene setup (too little benefit for the effort)<\/li>\n<li>Must become much simpler to install and configure (e.g. so tradespeople can offer installation contracts that are affordable for not just to the very high end of the market)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On customizability and integratability:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Making components from multiple vendor work together must become much simpler (e.g. cameras, open-source software)<\/li>\n<li>Devices need to be able to talk to each other directly, and control each other directly. (A mobile app is insufficient)<\/li>\n<li>The whole system needs to be programmable.<\/li>\n<li>Components need to be designed to be integratable into existing systems.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On home networks:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Home networks need to gain features for observability and controllability that today only exist for the enterprise market (e.g. how do you identify a misfunctioning device on your network?)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On the distribution \/ value-added channel:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Need simple, cost-effective solutions to home network and configuration problems that today require the expertise of an expensive networking professional with substantial qualifications.<\/li>\n<li>Need features that allow tradespeople to do their jobs at least as well as with traditional solutions (e.g. the <span dir=\"ltr\"><span class=\"_3l3x\">Next thermostat has no mode to allow a HVAC engineer to debug the furnace)<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li>We haven&#8217;t figured out the channel yet for the distribution of IoT products: home improvement retailers do not have the expertise.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On safety:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Systems have to become safe to use even &#8220;when a complete moron uses it&#8221;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There is probably more, but this is an excellent collection! It also very much aligns with <a href=\"https:\/\/upon2020.com\/blog\/2018\/11\/the-internet-of-things-could-be-great-if-only-we-didnt-let-the-tech-giants-own-it\/\">the<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@peter_64203\/evolving-iot-to-put-the-user-in-control-42d109386927\">recent<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/upon2020.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/local-network-services-for-iot-devices-could-be-a-game-changer\/\">discussion<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/upon2020.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/what-could-local-network-services-for-the-indie-iot-look-like\/\">between<\/a> Peter Hoddie and myself. Who&#8217;s up for collaborating to make it so?<\/p>\n<p>Credits and thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/about.me\/markatwood\">Mark Atwood<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.frankston.com\/\">Bob Frankston<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kgiori\">Kathy Giori<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Phillip_Hallam-Baker\">Phillip Hallam-Baker<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flutterby.net\/\">Dan Lyke<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jeff.nolan.54\">Jeff Nolan.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My post on Lowe&#8217;s killing off their home IoT product, Iris, kicked off an expert-level social media discussion on how IoT systems &#8220;ought&#8221; to be. Here&#8217;s a summary of what people said, grouped by subject, plus some implications. I figure it might be useful to keep this around for myself, and others, so I am&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"webmentions_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[332],"tags":[584],"class_list":["post-4378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iot","tag-requirements","kind-article"],"kind":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/upon2020.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/upon2020.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/upon2020.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upon2020.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upon2020.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4378"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/upon2020.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4382,"href":"https:\/\/upon2020.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4378\/revisions\/4382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/upon2020.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upon2020.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upon2020.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}