Ben van Lier, Internet of Things-expert van Centric, sprak tijdens de tweede Internet of Things-conferentie die op dinsdag 9 april werd gehouden in Rotterdam.

1. the Internet of Things
„questions concerning information and society‟
Internet of Things Conferentie
Rotterdam, 9 april 2013
Dr. Ben van Lier CMC
Director Strategy & Innovation

2. Phenomenology (Onthology)
Martin Heidegger
 The question concerning technology (1954/1977)
 „The essence of modern technology lies in Enframing‟
 “Thus the question as to how we are to arrive at a relationship to the essence of
technology, asked in this way, always comes too, late.
 But never too late comes the question as to whether we actually experience ourselves
as the ones whose activities everywhere, public and private, are challenged forth by
Enframing.
 Above all, never too late comes the question as to whether and how we actually admit
ourselves into that wherein Enframing itself comes to present” (1954/1977:24)

3. Informatics
Claude Shannon
 The mathematical theory of Communication (1948)
 “If the number of messages in the set is finite then this number or any monotonic
function of this number can be regarded as a measure of the information produced when
one message is chosen from the set”

4. Internet of Things – Machine2Machine communication
Sundmaeker c.s.
 Internet of Things (2010)
 In the context of Internet of Things a thing could be defined as a real/physical or digital/virtual
entity that exists and move in space and time and is capable of being identified either by
assigned identification numbers, names and/or location addresses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cpbbrpgwu2I
OECD
 M2M:Connecting billions of devices 2012
 Devices that are actively communicating using wired and wireless networks, that are not
computers in the traditional sense and are using the internet in some form or another (2012:7)

5. Systems theory - (epistemology) - I
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
 General systems theory (1969)
 A system or “organized complexity” may be circumscribed by the existence of strong
interactions or interactions which are non trivial i.e. nonlinear. The methodological
problem of systems theory, therefore, is to provide for problems which, compared with
the analytical-summative ones of classical science, are of a more general nature”
(1969:19)
Gregory Bateson
 Steps to an ecology of mind (1972)
 A bit of information is definable as a difference which makes a difference. Such a
difference, as it travels and undergoes successive transformation information in a circuit,
is an elementary idea”. (1972:315)

6. Systems Theory and Interoperability of Information
Niklas Luhmann
 Social Systems (1995 English edition)
 “Thus the concept of systems refers to something that is in reality a system and
thereby incurs the responsibility of testing its statements against reality”. (1995:13)
Context
Semantics
Technology
Hybrid system Self-referential and autopoietic Interoperable

7. Interoperability of Information - II
N Systems
N Systems
Context
Context
System
Semantics Interoperability Semantics
Technology
Technology
Hybrid system Hybrid system
“The realisation of mutual relations between two or more systems and entities in
order to use these connections to exchange and share information to further
develop activities, functionality or production”.

8. Interoperability of Information - III
Double contingency
N Systems
Context Context
System
Semantics Semantics
Technology Technology

9. Interoperability of Information - IV
System and Environment
N Systems
Context Context
System
Semantics Semantics
Technology Technology

10. Interoperability of Information - V
Communication and Action
Information – Utterance – Understanding
N Systems
Context Context
System
Semantics Semantics
Technology Technology
Information – Utterance – Understanding

11. Interoperability of Information – VI
Interpenetration
Information – Utterance – Understanding Interpenetration
N Systems
Context Context
System
Semantics Semantics
Technology Technology
Interpenetration
Information – Utterance – Understanding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZvDqumaLIY

12. Interoperability of Information – VI
Karl Weick
 Sensemaking (1995)
 Enactment i.e. the act of assigning meaning
 Sense is generated by words that are combined into the sentences of conversations to
convey something about our ongoing experience (1995:106)
 Because technology is a crucial part of organizations, it is important to incorporate it into any
discussion of sensemaking (1995:114)

13. Internet of Things - Context
Paul Dourish
 Like ordinariness, context is managed
moment by moment, achieved by those
carrying out some activity together, and
relative to that activity and to the forms of
action and engagement that it entails.
(2004:25)

14. Network-centric warfare – Internet of Things
“The difficulty will therefore no longer lie in understanding each
individual, autonomous, autopoeitic and self-referential system, but in
the existence and the nature of the relationship between these systems”
van Lier & Hardjono
Systems Practice and Action Research (2011) volume 24 pg. 479-497

15. Internet of Things and Emergent properties
Andy Clarke
 Natural-Born Cyborgs (2003)
 For better or for worse (almost certainly for both), human technology symbiosis is poised to
transform our lives both as individuals and as collective groups.
 At the individual level, new transparent technologies will increasingly blur the already fuzzy
boundary between the user and her tools for thought;
 at the collective level distributed activity-sensitive software will enable us to press new
knowledge from electronic trails of use and access. (2003:165)

16. Vragen?
ben.van.lier@centric.eu
@Ben_van_Lier
www.centric.eu/benvanlier