Smart Home Takeaways

The last grouping of posts outlines commentary from academic sources (a few academic reports), news outlets, blogs and other sources of information. When curating this part of the collection, the pros and cons of the automated home became fairly clear. The pros consists of an increased efficiency all around the home, from cooking to cleaning to entertaining. Further more, there are huge benefits in the realm of energy and environmental protection as well as benefits towards home security and safety. The cons mainly revolve around privacy issues, but there are also consumer reviews commenting on things like the “smart” devices not being as smart as they expected.

After sifting through the material in the curation so far, there is still a ton that can be touched upon with regards to the internet of things and the kinds of data that smart home devices collect and use, but all together this collection presents a pretty holistic representation of the smart home and its implications for the average consumer.

Right now, smart home devices operate “like a tourist in New York who never leaves the subway,” said Hoffman. “There is some information about the city, but the tourist is missing a lot of context for what’s happening outside of the stations.”

Reuters, Jan Wolfe