RFID Journal LIVE! 2023 will feature end-user companies discussing RFID’s use in various industries, as well as exhibitors offering tagging solutions for multiple applications. To learn more, visit the event’s website.
Did you know that Sunday, April 9, is a holiday? No, I don’t mean National Winston Churchill Day, Appomattox Day, Bataan Day, or International ASMR Day. I refer not to National Baked Ham with Pineapple Day, National Cherish an Antique Day, National Unicorn Day, National Mature Women’s Day, or National Gin and Tonic Day, nor do I mean National Chinese Almond Cookie Day, National Chicken Little Awareness Day, Kosovo Constitution Day or even Easter. It’s all of the above, yes, but it’s also a day relevant to the Internet of Things (IoT) industry. You see, this Sunday is World IoT Day.
IoT Day celebrates the innovative technologies of the Internet of Things that have vastly changed how companies do business and how people live day to day. As IBM’s Business Transformation Blog explained in a 2018 article, IoT Day provides “an open invitation for the Internet of Things community to recognize and celebrate the power that IoT has to transform our communities, our businesses and our lives.” MarketsAndMarkets reports that the global IoT market size, in terms of revenue, was estimated at $300.3 billion in 2021 and will rise to $650.5 billion by 2026—more than double in only five years. The transformation IBM predicted is happening, and in a major way.
Radio frequency identification, Near Field Communication, Bluetooth Low Energy, real-time location systems, artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, 3D printing, wireless charging, digital twins and other IoT technologies may have seemed like science fiction only a couple decades ago, but these days they’re becoming commonplace and ubiquitous. Thanks to the IoT, a network of physical objects embedded with sensors and software can now connect and exchange data via the Internet, with kitchen appliances, automobiles, baby monitors, wearables, thermostats and other smart products improving lifestyles for all of us.
It’s easy to forget just how extraordinary this all is. A century ago, even a half-century, it would have been unthinkable. Yet the Internet of Things and its many applications have vastly improved the world for the better. The theme of this year’s World IoT Day, quite fittingly, is “IoT for Good.” The IoT Council established the annual celebration in 2010, and as its website explains, “IoT Day is an open invitation to the Internet of Things community to set up an event, a lunch, a talk with the neighborhood on what the IoT is and what it means in everyday life for all of us.”
The IoT Council calls IoT Day an opportunity for the IoT community to show that it cares for people, the environment, animals and even machines. Companies can register their celebrations at the organization’s website, enabling others to find and attend their events. A list of such events is available here, including IoT Day France, IoT Day Woman, IoT Day in Mexico and UAM, IoT Day Argentina and more. RFID Journal, of course, celebrates IoT Day every day, not only with our daily news stories but also with our online and in-person events, including our upcoming RFID Journal LIVE! conference. How do you plan to celebrate?
Rich Handley is the editor of RFID Journal and has been with the company since 2005. Outside the RFID world, Rich has authored, edited or contributed to numerous books about pop culture. You can contact Rich via email.