My recent return to winter was not fun; my plan to live always in spring, summer and fall ignored my unfortunate penchant for travel. Oh well!
I started out last month at a small but well-structured Internet of Things event managed by VDI Wissenforums, called the CESIS Global Internet of Things Conference. There were some truly interesting and "far out" ideas discussed, especially in the bio-engineering field. I guess within a few years we'll all find ourselves as cyborgs to some extent, but I see a lot more "active" electronics embedded in our bodies than "passive" replacement parts in our futures. I'd say "you heard it here first" but you've probably already heard it.
Berlin is usually grey and overcast during February, but in the middle of the month, the weather was quite bright and sunny (though still around freezing!). I was there primarily for the fifth edition of Bosch ConnectedWorld Berlin which as always was outstanding. Bosch is in fact a very diverse conglomerate (I own a Bosch dishwasher in fact!) but the automotive market is where its heart is, and that absolutely shined through at the event this year. Day One brought a car self-parking in a valet parking spot and me on stage talking about the opportunities inherent in connected vehicles—not necessarily autonomous by the way. Connected vehicles present a huge opportunity to gather, disseminate, and even sell collected data. I can't resist sharing my favorite blog on the topic, written by my son. The opportunities are eye-opening.
Also, strongly present at the event was IOTA Hyperledger technology (think "blockchain done right"). Besides formal and public adoption by Bosch, Volkswagen and others, it became quite clear to many that digital identity will only be solved by some sort of distributed trust mechanism (which is essentially what IOTA is). Watch this space for more news!
Despite the exceptional Bosch ConnectedWorld show, the part of the trip of which I'm most proud is participation in the ReDI School of Integration. Focusing on asylum-seeking new immigrants to Germany from conflict areas of the world, the REDI School brings brilliant people up to speed on modern computer technology like the Internet of Things (IoT). I gave a talk about opportunities in today's IoT market—and more important, in the vertical markets facing disruption from IoT—and participated in one of the school's graduations again. An exception group of people—it took some doing to keep up with their questions!
The end of my Berlin sojourn featured an evening at the opera, specifically Die Zauberflöte at the Deutsche Oper. Since all of their sets were destroyed by a freak flood around Christmas time, the sets were minimal but interesting. More importantly, Mozart's music was unchanged and the low bass and high soprano parts were especially well carried out (the soprano part of the Königin der Nacht is especially difficult).
Next stop on this tour was in Düsseldorf, home of the annual EuroCIS retail technology event. That needs a little background. OMG Retail Task Force Member Bizerba has been part of the ARTS standards process for some time, and Bizerba Vice President, Tudor Andronic, has been one of many enthusiastic members of the restructured ARTS partnership with the National Retail Federation. Tudor was so enthusiastic, in fact, that he put together an entire event (called Quo Vadis Retail to highlight the value of what we're doing with ARTS, and all of the other two dozen plus vertical markets that make up the Object Management Group®.
The event was cleverly positioned at the front end of retail technology mega-event EuroCIS to make it easy for people to join us and see the big show. Attendance was very focused with interest in cross-vertical-market sharing of information, as well as new trends like blockchain, AI and IoT. A thoroughly fascinating event—I wish I could have stayed longer, but I had to leave in the early afternoon to get to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Fortunately, my colleague, Karen Shunk, was able to stay for the day and reported good attendance and conversations.
Arriving on the last Monday in February in the evening of a burgeoning Barcelona (a city almost too small for the enormous Mobile World Congress crowd), I was delighted to take part in a day of Huawei customer and global organizational events, then joined my colleagues and Fira staff in the joint booth to talk about the Industrial Internet Consortium® and IoT Solutions World Congress. Interest was very high at this mega-event in two major topics: 5G and IoT. Despite a little skepticism about the demand for the first, interest in the latter (and especially testbeds) was rampant, generating quite a lot of booth traffic—and exhausted staff!
Friday after the exhaustion of the huge Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, I was interviewed for both Computerworld about the Consortium for IT Software Quality™ quality metrics as well as the upcoming IoT Solutions World Congress. The fun never stops!
Now I’m headed home, but my next trip is to Reston, Virginia where I’ll be attending the OMG TC member meeting from March 19-23. Headliners include: Colonel Jacob Aaronson, DO, Office of Military Healthcare Systems Chief Healthcare Informatics Officer, who will discuss the need for healthcare standards; Jeanette Manfra, National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) Assistant Secretary for the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications (CS&C), DHS, who will explain how DHS is strengthening the security and resilience of the nation’s critical IT infrastructure; and Dr. Bill Curtis Executive Director of the Consortium for IT Software Quality™, an authority in the field of software quality, who will talk about strategies to modernize and secure government IT in the era of cybersecurity. It’s not too late to register, so please visit https://www.omg.org/events/va-18/index.htm.
Best,
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