10 year-olds with Fitbits - The IoT hits home

 After Swagway's Hoverboard & Rubik's Cube, the hot gift for my 10 year-old son's set this Christmas was a Fitbit.

Nerdy mom that I am, I loved chatting with these mile-a-minute-men-in-the-making about what they like most about their new toy/tool/gadget/status symbol. (And yes, every one of their statements would end with an exclamation point.)

"It tells me how many steps I take!" 

"It tells how many miles I've walked!"

"It tells me if I hit my goals for the day!"

It really got interesting when I asked them what they'd do with that information. Their faces were priceless.

Just knowing if they'd hit 8,000 steps or how many miles they walked satisfied them completely. That's what brought a smile to their faces. If the Fitbit told them they were 3,000 steps short of their goal, they weren't really interested in putting down Madden to get busy conquering that goal. They can always do it again tomorrow. Today, they're fine just knowing what they did.

Obviously, there's a corporate lesson to be learned, too. With industrial sensors, connected consumer products,  smart homes and cities, etc., there's mind-numbing amounts of data being collected. Much of that data can serve to justify a program's existence. Data is most valuable, though, when it's presented in such a compelling way that it changes what we decide to do next, unlike my 10 year-old friends.

I know many of you smart folks are in the business of making that happen. It's exciting to watch, and more exciting to be a part.

Happy 2016 to you!