The Internet is gradually transforming itself into a wide area network, called the "Internet of Things", linking all objects that have become connectable. This development raises many questions about economic growth and social change, but also about individual freedoms and national sovereignty, which public decision-makers will have to answer as soon as possible.
France Stratégie has just published: "Demain, l'Internet des objets". An analysis note written by Mehdi Nemri, a telecommunications engineer with a master's degree in European affairs, on the recent development of consumer connected objects showing that we have reached a tipping point: these connected objects could be between 50 and 80 billion in the world by 2020. There are now nearly 15 billion of them.
In the space of a few years, the Internet has become the main vehicle for disseminating information. It has established itself in many areas as an essential infrastructure for individuals, businesses and institutions. However, its capacity for extension beyond computers and mobile terminals alone is still considerable, as it should allow an increasing number of objects to interact with each other or with ourselves. The Internet is gradually transforming itself into a wide area network, called the "Internet of Things", linking several billion human beings but also tens of billions of objects.
Fields that are still relatively unaffected by the Internet, such as health, housing, automobiles and insurance, will be disrupted by this transformation of the network: formidable economic competition should take place in the coming years, not only for control of the platforms, but also for the sharing of value between traditional economic players and newcomers from the digital sector.
This development raises many questions about economic growth and the social changes it will bring about, but also about individual freedoms and national sovereignty. For France and Europe to be fully involved in this revolution, it is necessary to facilitate project experimentation, create an open platform dedicated to public services for the Internet of Things, make security and privacy a competitive advantage, support European industrialists in the standardisation of their technologies and strengthen the European presence in standardisation bodies.
The exact shape that the Internet of Things sector will take is far from clear. Convergence with nanotechnology, biotechnology, artificial intelligence and robotics will have a significant impact on its evolution. Many French SMEs, some of which are supported by the public authorities, are seeking to take a stand. The financial resources deployed in the United States or China are nevertheless considerable.
Numerous actions have already been undertaken in France: the "connected objects" plan; competitiveness clusters; better access to financing for start-ups; promotion of the FrenchTech label; better coordination of government information systems and public data management. These various actions must be amplified, coordinated - to overcome the logic of silo development - and extended on a European scale, to ensure the development of an Internet of Things that is open, interoperable and meets the needs of personal data protection and security.
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