Internet of Things DC is the Washington DC area community for technologists, developers, investors, business people, and entrepreneurs who are interested in creating and using the Internet of Things.
While the community is primarily in the Washington DC metro area (DC, Northern Virginia and Maryland), we welcome participation from people and organizations worldwide.
We post many of our events on the Internet of Things DC meetup group on Meetup.com
The Internet of Things refers to embedded devices that are able to communicate electronically through networks such as the Internet. These devices may contain sensors that continuously detect and transmit information (such as temperature, location, or motion), or they may respond to electronic commands to perform actions (such as opening a lock or turning on a light). They are built using tiny microprocessors that run embedded software, along with a network interface (usually wireless) that allows them to communicate through the Internet or private networks.
In May 2013 the McKinsey Global Institute named the Internet of Things one of twelve disruptive technologies that have the potential to transform life, business, and the global economy. The full report can be found here.
Along with devices and networks, the Internet of Things includes an ecosystem of back-end systems, data collection, processing and analytics, and software applications that are used by end users. This ecosystem works together to provide overall benefits to decision making, process and resource optimization, quality of life, and other factors in the healthcare, manufacturing, energy, lifestyle, and other sectors both public and private.
As mentioned in the McKinsey report, more than nine billion devices around the world are currently connected to the Internet and that number is expected to increase dramatically over the next decade. McKinsey growth estimates range from 50 billion to one trillion. That is a lot of connected devices! Advances in electronics, software, sensors, miniaturization, cloud computing, wireless networking, and open source hardware and software have all contributed to the steady growth and utility of the Internet of Things.