What to Expect REALLY from the "Internet of Things"

For those of us (unlike Tim Berners-Lee) who feel it is important to examine the reality of the Internet, rather than some utopian academic ideal, Don Reisinger's story this morning on CNET News would just have been a matter of waiting for the shoe to drop. Everything can be found in a single sentence quoted from a Google document:

For example, a few years from now, we and other companies could be serving ads and other content on refrigerators, car dashboards, thermostats, glasses, and watches, to name just a few possibilities.

In other words, whatever propaganda Cisco may be pumping out about how the "Internet of Things" will make the world a better place, the only result that will really matter is that more "things" will be targets for Internet-based advertising. The repercussions of pop-up ads appearing on car dashboards can be left as an exercise for the reader!