Well. That was a challenge. The range and quality of entries for the One to Watch showcase was amazing and it has been a struggle to pick our shortlist from over 60 applications – even after we extended the number of slots available. We could easily have put a series of successful companies together from our applications from a single vertical but we want to demonstrate the range of great companies that are emerging from the IoT firmament.

However, in the end we have selected the following businesses to present on the 27th June:

• Electric Imp
• Unioncy
• Good Night Lamp
• Xively
• Chirp.io
• Concirrus
• SigFox
• Thingworx
• Bleep Bleeps
• Etherios
• Berg
• Datownia
• Abacus

With this list we want to highlight a cross section of companies – from startups to established, profitable ventures – who we think have potential to drive the IoT forward. While we wanted to highlight the businesses that could really harness the potential of the IoT across a range of verticals, what surprised us was the great range of roles across the shortlist. Platform as a system, hardware modules, development platforms, consumer products, network operators, B2B integrations – they are all represented here. Which tells us that the IoT ecosystem is developing very fast indeed.

We are also working out how we can get some of the other applicants air time on the day. Watch this space.

To hear from each of the companies about their businesses, their aspirations and their needs, sign up for IoT13 here. Or if you want to know more about IoT13 – including all the other speakers, the sessions etc, there is much more detail on the IoT Forum site here.

Great note about the Internet of Things from the CEO of Bosch, Volkmar Denner. Bosch is a big company in case you didn’t know. How big? Over 300,000 employees big. Pretty cool that the CEO of a company that size is thinking about the Internet of Things so carefully. Well worth reading the full article.

Some interesting thoughts on IoT and what it means for Bosch, industry, consumers and the rest of the world but he also makesa fantastic point that a lot of people seem to forget as they are carried away with their own visions of the future – the IoT is very complex technology but the whole point is that it needs to make people’s livers simpler.

“My personal conclusion is that the IoTS will drastically improve manufacturing industry’s engineering, production, logistics, and life-cycle management processes. But there are still some challenges left to overcome:

1. We know that connected technology is usually complex technology. But this technology must make life and work simpler, not more complex.
2. We have to address the arising concerns that there will be no control over autonomous behavior of machines and intelligent objects and concentrate on ensuring that communication among people, machines, and products works as naturally as it does in a social network.

“I am convinced that we won’t ever see a time when we have fully automated factories completely devoid of human beings. Manufacturing will continue to follow the pace we as people set.”

Want to know more about the Internet of Things? You should definitely come to the Internet of Things Forum, 27th June, Cambridge. Early Bird rates available to the end of the week. Get to it.

[subscribe2]

At an ‘Audience with Robert Scoble’ last night organised by our partners in the IoT forum Rackspace, Robert shared a great talk about what he refers to as the Age of Context.

This is something that he started to think about as the avalanche of entrepreneurial companies that he sees everyday started to show five strong trends:

• Wearable computers
• New types of DB and ways of handling data
• New sensor stuff
• Social networks are expanding exponentially
• Location based services

Together, (what we might call the Internet of Things), these developments are creating the Age of Context, an age of better sound, health, more effective marketing (this is ALWAYS promised as one of the key advantages of any new technology by the way though our worlds are still filled with lame ads), where you will be tracked.

A very interesting discussion with the world’s favourite early adopter. Scoble has an almost childlike fascination with any new technology though he also has the wit and intelligence to adjust his pitch to bring the doubters on board as anyone that watched him talking to Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight last night would realise.

The slides from Robert’s talk…

Rackspace are running a one day, free, event, Unlocked: The Hybrid Cloud, on Thursday 11th July at No. 11 Cavendish Square, London, W1G 0AN (Map). Unlocked is a one day event for developers, IT professionals and decision-makers to learn and discuss how hybrid cloud is changing IT.

Join the Rackspace cloud experts as they discuss cloud application fit, polyglot datastores, their Five Pillars of Cloudiness, and more to help you maximise your agility in the cloud:

General sessions (morning)

• What workloads are being put in the cloud
• The role of shadow IT
• How to design cloud apps, infrastructure as code

Business track (afternoon)

• Cloudonomics
• OPEX v CAPEX
• IT cloud strategy
• Customer case studies

Technical track (afternoon)

• Devops in practise
• CI/CD
• Application dissection
• Building at scale

This type of cloud training is often charged at over £1,200 per attendee by Rackspace competitors, however you can join for free. Fill in the form at go.rackspace.com/unlocked to register your attendance and feel free to register any colleagues who would also benefit from this event.[subscribe2]

Nice piece on Newsnight by Rory Cellan-Jones on the explosion of wearable technologies and what it means for consumers, companies and lawmakers.

Link to Newsnight’s coverage here.

The interview with the company that has offered its employees on a voluntary basis to become quantified selves was a little scary though. “Appirio believes that technology has the power to make employees better.” Lori Williams who runs the European operation of Appirio said,

“This is not just about making us better employees but better people.”

Creepy. Creepy.

The employees didn’t look like they were having much fun though. Perhaps I would feel like that if I worked in a company that could pull up information about how much sleep I have had in the past week.

The report was followed by an excellent discussion between Jeremy Paxman, Jaron Lanier and Robert Scoble on the implications for consumers. Paxman was predictable contemptuous of Scoble’s wearing of Google Glasses in the shower but the technophiles won this particular exchange.

[subscribe2]

We normally ask delegates who register for BLN events what questions they’d like to get answered on the day and what problems they’re trying to solve. It’s not a very scientific poll but this time it’s generated some interesting responses. The biggest theme so far is from people trying to pin down a definition:

• ‘I need to understand the landscape’
• ‘Get beyond the hype and really understand the use cases’
• ‘Clarify IoT in my head’
• ‘Discovering more clues on the scope of the “IoT” concept’

Beyond that, nearly as many people are looking to identify partners: it seems some of the opportunities here are too big for one business to deal with on their own:

• ‘find partners for great IoT projects’
• ‘Develop our ecosystem’

And a third, significant, portion of questions are those talking about funding, where to get it and how to make themselves attractive to investors. Surely a good sign.

If you’d like to put your questions to the panels at IoT13, you can find more information on the event at the microsite here.

“We’re moving in the cycle of wearables, driveables, flyables and scannables” Mary Meeker says in her Internet Trends report released at the D11 Conference this week.

This is big news for the Internet of Things (IoT) in the same way that Cisco’s recent TV advertising campaign is.

People will notice.

More specifically, Silicon Valley will notice. Many have commented on the relative lack of willingness of Silicon Valley investors to invest in Internet of Things projects on the basis that they are, ‘hardware’. This isn’t entirely fair – SoftTech VC, Foundry Group Kleiner Perkins, Google Ventures, Venrock and True Ventures for example are all high profile investors in valley based IoT companies.

The very mention of something like the Internet of Things from Mary Meeker will put the carnivorous sheep-flock of valley investors on red alert as they adjust their well considered investment theses to include companies that are well placed to be the leaders in the next wave of disruptive innovation. Watch out too for the pivots that companies, previously focused on ad-optimizing web-widgets, will be making to get their company its next round of investment.

Notes from talk at Internet of Things Meetup, May 21st, 2013.

Some thoughts on getting your idea funded and some pointers to sources of funding.

[subscribe2]