Cisco

If the electronic commerce predictions of the late 1990s had come true, today's average 18-year-old may never have known what it was like to step in a store or participate in the whirl of shopping as millions of Americans will this holiday season. By today, he or she would have a phone or computer permanently attached to their hand, and anything they would need or want would be ordered online and then delivered directly to them. Who knows? Maybe some products were going to be transported—like Star Trek. But, we all know that has not come true.

The Internet of Everything is connecting people, process, data, and things every second of every day. In this episode of True Stories of the Connected, a Canadian doctor demonstrates the power of video and telehealth as he works to keep in contact with patients who are sometimes hundreds of miles away in a remote, tribal village. Amazing things happen when you connect the unconnected.

Many people are familiar with the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT). Not only does it have its own Wikipedia article, but last month the Internet of Things was added to the Oxford dictionary, which defines it as “a proposed development of the Internet in which everyday objects have network connectivity, allowing them to send and receive data.” So it’s not surprising that people might be confused when we start talking about the Internet of Everything. What’s the difference? Is IoE simply a rebranding of IoT?

The only constant is change—and companies that do not change get left behind. My perspective is that it’s best to accept change as inevitable—to embrace it, lead it, and use it to shape desired outcomes. As I discussed previously, many of today’s leading trends—what I call market transitions—are combining into the Internet of Everything, which we define as the intelligent connection of people, processes, data, and things.

In the Mexican city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez in Chiapas state, an interesting experiment is unfolding that could be an early forerunner of a future trend—the use of cell phones as sensors. Under the city's "Vigilante Taxi Driver" program, cab drivers use GPS-enabled cell phones to send messages and photographs about everything from accidents and potholes to burst water mains, downed streetlights and criminal activity—effectively acting as additional eyes and ears of government to combat high crime rates and run-down infrastructure. The reports go to a control center for routing to the appropriate government agency.

The U.S. healthcare industry has come a long way in recent decades in using telecommunication services to improve patient care. Sick or injured people in remote areas such as the South Pole and on cruise ships can get evaluated by specialists thanks to advancements in technology. More doctors are adopting electronic health records to manage patient care, and more patients have access to those records via Internet-based systems.

The reason you may soon leave your wallet behind is because your smartphone will take its place and become the repository for credit cards, coupons, loyalty cards—and cash. However, before that can happen, a mobile payment standard has to be agreed upon by a range of interests, and then adopted.

I am "teaching" a MOOC, one of those massive, open, online courses through which Coursera and, more recently, edX offer people around the globe challenging learning experiences through a simple internet connection: video mini-lectures, machine-graded problem sets in some courses, peer-evaluated essays in others, discussion boards, and more. There's no cost or credit for the "students" yet, but could this point the way to the "schools" of the future?

After it was over, the 2008 U.S. presidential election came to be known as "the social media election"—a nod to the Obama team's tech-savvy use of the Internet to raise money and build its grassroots network. But today, with the current presidential election campaigns going into overdrive, few would dispute that 2012 is the year social media in politics has truly come of age.

Working from home has become the norm for many corporate employees. One in five employees worldwide ‘telecommute' on a regular basis. In the United States, more than 26 million people work from home on a regular basis, according to the Telework 2011 report. And even workers who spend the majority of their time in the office often check email and do work tasks from home—with 80% of employees completing company work on weekends and evenings.