When did you hear first of IoT? In what context was that?
« On January 28, 2009, I walked into the office of Dominique Guenaux, founder of the Orfidée company, for one of the many “networking” meetings that keep executives and freelance consultants on the lookout for new contacts and opportunities.
Dominique showed me, neatly arranged in little boxes, electronic components he called tags or labels, then antennas, chips, readers, objects that could talk to each other and exchange information. He patiently explained RFID, the different frequencies involved, and shared with me his passion for these objects, which he has sought to promote and deploy through his company UbiQuiet in the field of the Internet of Things. To say that “I’m not sure I understood everything when I left this meeting” would be an understatement. » Extract from my book on NFC (2015).
Did you think it was something big then or just another technology?
Difficult to say but it got my attention. As some of you know, I have been part of the development of two major and exciting technology adventures, the micro-computing (hardware and software ) Commodore, Apricot, Borland) industry in the 80’s and the Internet (CompuServe, AOL) starting in the mid 90’s) in product marketing roles in France, Europe and in the US. I did sense it has the potential to be a new exciting technology of that level.
But it’s also a complex question as IOT has such different flavors.
What were your dreams, hopes for it once you realised how big it was going to be?
« Selfishnessly », finding a new job in this area ! More globally, to do as I did in the micro-computing and internet fields, understand it and modestly be part of its development by helping companies to define product and services and users to adopt them. Learn, share, redo !
Appendix 1
After the January 28, 2009 encounter with Dominique, I spent the following 2 years discovering this new field, trying to imagine what to do with it, had many more meetings, went to many RFID/M2M shows and conferences until the first Council meeting in 2010 in Paris where I met you and Gerald and many more in this list. Then, there was no more doubt about the future of the industry. Although this event was not an industrial one, the energy and passion shared by the participants were overwhelming.