Business View Oceania - Oct 2023

12 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 5, ISSUE 10 The Alliance works closely with various levels of government, as well as a variety of sectoral groups like Waterworks Services Alliance Australia, the Smart Cities Council, Standards Australia, and Communications Alliance to help encourage connections and the adoption of IoT. “We, by definition, have to be a collaborator of collaborators because that’s the only way we can bridge that technical/sectoral bridge,” Zeichner says. Aside from being good for business, Zeichner believes IoT has the power to do good in the world. He emphasises, “We absolutely must not look, or be like, or act like Facebook, that just introduces something and says whatever happens, happens. We want to make sure that it’s inclusive, that we design with and not for people. That’s the transformation I’m looking for.” But inclusion and understanding isn’t the only thing IoT can do for good. It can also have a huge impact on environmental sustainability. “The whole idea that people are guessing as they go needs to change. We need to actually be measuring, to actually know what we are doing. We need to understand the whole ecosystem and the net effect of what we are doing,” Zeichner says. “The way I explain it is: I have a granddaughter who is four years old. I imagined what she would say to me when she is 20. She would be saying ‘why didn’t you know that you’re completely wasting energy or wasting water or breathing bad air?’ So, understanding our planet and how we interact with it is going to be something that IoT for good is about.” The Internet of Things is already making a difference in the world. A World Economic Forum study found that 84 percent of 640 IoT projects they reviewed had a sustainability dividend, even though that was not prime reason for the projects. “Isn’t it amazing?” Zeichner muses. “Imagine if you actually designed for sustainability as opposed to just having it as a by-product? It might well be even better.” For now, adoption of IoT has been slower in Australia than expected, albeit accelerated in some parts due to COVID, but Zeichner believes that will change in the future. And that change will make Australia stand out amongst the global players. “One of the reasons we created IoTAA was because we are progressively, slowly and inexorably not accelerating at the rate of the rest of the world, so our global position is slowly eroding,” he says. “I’m really hoping that we start moving. We stop the trend and we go the other way. That’s my ambition. My vision is that being more of a leader and not a follower we are in control of our own destinies by choosing how we do this and not wait for it to happen to us. That’s what I want to do.” For more information, visit: https://iot.org.au/