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More objects and devices are connected to digital networks than ever before. Things - from your phone to your car, from the heating to the lights in your house - have gathered the ability to sense their environments and create information about what is happening. Things have become media, able to both generate and communicate information. This has become known as 'the internet of things'.
In this accessible introduction, Graham Meikle and Mercedes Bunz observe its promises of convenience and the breaking of new frontiers in communication. They also raise urgent questions regarding ubiquitous surveillance and information security, as well as the transformation of intimate personal information into commercial data.
Discussing the internet of things from a media and communication perspective, this book is an important resource for courses analysing the internet and society, and essential reading for anyone who wants to better understand the rapidly changing roles of our networked lives.
List of contents
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1: First things
Chapter 2: Addressing things
Chapter 3: Speaking things
Chapter 4: Seeing things
Chapter 5: Tracking things
Chapter 6: Last things
References
Index
About the author
Graham Meikle is Professor of Communication and Digital Media at the University of Westminster.
Mercedes Bunz is Senior Lecturer at the University of Westminster.
Summary
More objects and devices are connected to digital networks than ever before. Things - from your phone to your car, from the heating to the lights in your house - have gathered the ability to sense their environments and create information about what is happening. Things have become media, able to both generate and communicate information.
Report
'In this remarkably profound and accessible book, Bunz & Meikle analyze the Internet of Things as a matter of communication for both machines and humans. It is a must read for anyone interested in understanding how the world around us is changing.'
--Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Brown University
'Sick of people banging on about the Internet of things? Read Bunz and Meikle's wonderful and timely book to understand this powerful and complex next wave of digital technology development, and in what ways the profound changes in the Internet really do matter for contemporary life. A delight to read, this exceptionally lucid, deeply researched, insightful account, and witty account deserves to be widely read by anyone interested in media, communication, and technology futures.'
--Gerard Goggin, The University of Sydney
