Leading the Internet of Things.docVIP

Leading the Internet of Things 　　The Internet of Things （IoT） is no longer a new concept. It has already been applied to areas such as transportation， security， medical care and education. However， the technology is still at an exploratory stage and has a long way to go before it is industrialized and broadly adopted. 　　The First World Internet of Things Convention， to open in Beijing on June 18， is regarded as China’s contribution to the global promotion and development of the IoT. 　　The IoT is considered as the third major innovation in information technology following the invention of computers and the Internet. Both of the two previous innovations were created by the United States. Although China is a big producer and user of computers， it still lags in terms of development， given that the key technologies， standards and software involved are in the hands of the United States. 　　China therefore hopes to shift from its previous role as a follower of technological advancement to a leader in IoT development. Such an aspiration is not unrealistic in light of the country’s investment in technological research and development and its large market. China is already on the same page as developed countries in terms of IoT development. 　　The IoT was first brought up in The Road Ahead， a 1995 book co-authored by Bill Gates. The IoT was ranked among the top 10 hottest technologies by Business Weekly in 2004 for being able to realize timely communication between people and things as well as connectivity between devices. The World Summit on the Information Society held in Tunis in November 2005 formally raised the concept for the first time. 　　Development of the IoT kicked off in China in 2009. In August that year， Wen Jiabao， China’s Premier at the time， proposed to build a sensing information center in Wuxi， east China’s Jiangsu Province. In early 2013， the Central Government issued a guideline on the IoT， proposing to realize its wide application， master core tec