More and more we are hearing about lab environments being created in order to develop IoT solutions and services that can eventually be mainstreamed. I wrote a post earlier this week that described a joint effort between Marriott Hotels, Samsung and Legrand. The lab being created in the article below is completely different. As opposed to a controlled laboratory environment, the Balearic government is taking it right to the streets. Unlike the corporate approach, governments and municipalities have the autonomy and authority to make decisions more readily, due to the fact that consensus is not necessary. Additionally, with many municipal and government projects, funding is less of a constraint, so execution can be accomplished more rapidly. The best part of these real-world lab projects is that they are larger and more diverse in scale and as such, they become repeatable in other sizable geographic areas.
Spain’s Balearic Islands are about to be covered in half a million sensors. The regional government’s ambition is to turn the archipelago off eastern Spain into a globally recognized lab for Internet of Things projects.
Benjamí Villoslada, the Balearic government’s general director of technological development, sees the sensor infrastructure as providing an opportunity to develop services that improve the life of inhabitants.
