IoP – Internet of People

The term “Internet of People” (IoP) was coined by Fernando Boavida and Jorge Sá Silva (both from the University of Coimbra, Portugal) in the last quarter of 2012, in the context of their research in the areas of wireless sensor networks and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Later on, in April 2013, they submitted a networking session proposal to ICT 2013, Europe’s main event on digital technology, which was held in Vilnius, Lithuania, on 6-8 November 2013, where the concept was presented with the support of researchers from University College Cork (IE), Technische Universität Braunschweig (DE), Auto-ID Lab ETH Zurich (CH), and Toshiba’s Telecom Research Lab (UK).

IoP envisages the development of a dynamically configurable integration platform of connected smart objects that allows enhanced, people-centric applications, as opposed to things-centric ones, combining the real, sensory world with the virtual world for the benefit of people, and enabling the development of sensing applications in contexts such as e-health, sustainable mobility, social networks enhancement, or fulfilling people’s special needs. These technologies will undoubtedly be a key piece in the future and emerging people-centric society. On the other hand, IoP  must rely on a set of common building blocks, middleware and services that can be used to construct people-oriented applications in an open, dynamic and more effective way, targeting smart environments including but not restricted to smart cities, businesses, education and e-health, and bridging the gap between IoT technologies and their users.

Following the networking session presented at ICT 2013, the concept led to a H2020 project proposal submitted to ICT Call 1 on April 2014, involving sixteen partners, namely, University of Coimbra (PT), UNINOVA – Instituto de Desenvolvimento de Novas Tecnologias (PT), Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (DE), Technische Universitaet Berlin (DE), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ES), Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (ES), ATOS Spain (ES), TSSG – Waterford Institute of Technology (IE), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto di Ricerche sulla Popolazione e le Politiche Sociali (IT), San Raffaele S.p.A. - Interinstitutional Multidisciplinary Biobank (IT), Stichting IMEC Nederland - Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (NL), University of Oulu (FI), iProtoXi (FI), Trialog (FR), SETCCE (SI), and IBM Israel (IL). Eventually, the proposal was not retained for funding, and this led to a follow-up project proposal to H2020 ICT Call 30 on April 2015, with the same core partners.

References

Boavida F, Silva JS (2013) IoP – Internet of People. Future Internet Networking Session. ICT 2013, Vilnius, Lithuania. http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/events/cf/ict2013/item-display.cfm?id=10400 . Accessed 1 June 2015