The Internet of Everything: Assessing its impact on business and community

The 'Internet of Everything' (IoE) whereby each human on average is currently connected to about 200 things (smart phones, tablets, sensors and systems) has had a radical impact on business but also on community for instance through the Arab Middle Eastern Spring. This chapter examines how countries can grapple with evaluating the influence of IoE to leverage its ability to improve its impact on their economies and communities in vital areas of education and health. In addition to its relevance to governments, businesses internationally are also interested in the IoE, for instance CISCO, Microsoft and IBM in pursuing business opportunities for developing new services to leverage this connectivity. However, the extent to which this increased connectivity presents opportunities or challenges for development is yet to be assessed. A significant factor for developing communities to partake in this connectivity is the underlying Internet infrastructure. Investing in Internet infrastructure is usually a major digital investment facing developing communities. Although billions of dollars are being spent internationally on such infrastructure, there are insufficient effective tools to monitor the impact of such investment. This chapter is significant as it provides a tool for assessing the contribution of this digital investment on the economy and community, and can be used by government agencies and businesses in developing communities to identify opportunities for interventions and applications as required.