Internet of Things and the Public Sector

The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the most recent examples of a technology that has the potential to bridge the cyber world and the physical world. The IoT can be understood as the integration of a great number of small devices (including many types of sensors, which are components capable of detecting changes in its environment and converting this change into an electrical signal) into a network that shares and integrates their data, which can be used for real-time decision-making. The transformational power of the IoT promises to change the world by fully integrating people into their surroundings for better management of energy, health, transportation, and life resources. In the public sector, the IoT has the potential to revolutionize federal, state, and local government programs and services, particularly in domains in which the physical infrastructure or the natural world are key elements of those programs. This chapter conceptualizes the IoT, outlines some potential benefits generally and in the public sector, and presents some of the challenges to adoption and use of the IoT. The chapter closes with an overview of the subsequent book chapters.