This a talk I gave to the Boston Linux and Unix group at MIT (https://blu.org). It is meant more as a conversation among friends than a polished talk.
My goal is not to automate my house but rather to build on the powerful ideas that gave us the Internet and focus on peer relationships between devices and other endpoints. I can then use APIs to manage the relationships. Turning on a light, for example, means sending a message to the light independent of the physical topology. That message can be sent from anywhere in the world (for those with the appropriate trust relationships).
This is in sharp contrast with the automation meme. In looking at the most recent issue of the IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine, I was struck by the degree to which the articles are written without being informed by practice. They date to a time when solutions are provided rather than built on enabling technologies accessible to all. Today our world is defined by software rather than having functions built in. People can buy services, but they are also empowered to create their own solutions. The approaches must be synergistic rather than one or the other.
Enjoy:
Connectivity Beings at Home
