Around this time of the year, many choose skiing as their favorite leisure activity to deal with the cold. In fact, with 330-400 million skier visits per season, skiing is considered to be one of the most popular sports in the world. However, in a few years from now, skiing might look completely different. Like many other sports or industries - from healthcare to home solutions, from agriculture to self-driving cars - skiing will be revolutionized and highly technologically advanced with Internet of Things (IoT) devices - the buzz word of an era that is only starting to uncover.
While this winter the IoT market encompasses around 5 million devices, by the 2020/21 winter season it will become a multi-trillion dollar market (today companies such as Apple, Google and Facebook are generating together 250 billion), with the number of IoT devices to reach 20.8 million. Equipment connected to the global network will generate more data than ever before, which could be used to increase safety, analyze and improve skills or simply to predict behaviors. Markets will be disrupted, with new products and services, requiring tech savvy professionals and adequate regulation.
However, still in its incipient stage, many questions arise: what exactly is IoT? What legal and technical challenges might appear with the use of IoT devices? Are the current laws and regulations enough to counteract them? Lastly but maybe most importantly, how will this affect our life, the markets and our professions?
RSPV at Stupariu_Ioana@phd.ceu.edu
Reception to follow
