You will be hearing A LOT about “The Internet of Things” or “The Internet of Everything” or “Industrial Internet” this year and next. But it was this month’s Wired magazine who devoted the issue’s cover story to “Welcome to the Programmable World.” It starts off with a focus on SmartThings‘ CEO Alex Hawkinson and his ‘smarthome’:
On a 5-acre plot in Great Falls, Virginia, less than a mile’s stroll through exurban scrub from the wide Potomac River, Alex Hawkinson has breathed life into a lifeless object. He has given his house, a sprawling six-bedroom Tudor, what you might describe as a nervous system: a network linking together the home’s very sinews, its walls and ceilings and windows and doors. He has made these parts move, let them coalesce as a bodily whole, by giving them a way to talk among themselves. Open a telnet session in the house’s digital hub and you can actually spy on his chattering stuff, hear what it says when no one’s listening.
There are few more appropriate guides to this impending future than Hawkinson, whose DC-based startup, SmartThings, has built what’s arguably the most advanced hub to tie connected objects together. At his house, more than 200 objects, from the garage door to the coffeemaker to his daughter’s trampoline, are all connected to his SmartThings system. His office can automatically text his wife when he leaves and tell his home A/C system to start powering up.
Great article and it is one you need to read, not only for SmartThings, but because many people (including me) believe strongly that the connected, programmable world will be the biggest thing to hit our world since the internet itself.
The Gang talks Minnesota stories and then a lot about 
SOPHIA.org
One of the reasons healthcare costs have spun out of control is that most consumers are blind to those costs. There isn’t an easy method of shopping for price and little-to-no incentive for doing so since most consumers only care about their small co-pay.
Several good Minnesota stories this week, including about 
Always on the hunt for thought leaders who are thinking strategically about the future, I watched the video below last night and it sparked so many thoughts I was compelled to share it with you.
The ninth annual 
Several good Minnesota stories this week, including how to talk to ‘Fido’ when you’re away from your home and whether or not your dog even thinks you’re really there or doesn’t care!