Connected apartments may be smarter than connected homes

If you’re looking for clean data then connected apartments offer a much better set of information than connected homes argues Sce Pike, the founder and CEO of Iotas, on this week’s podcast. Pike, whose startup kits out apartments with sensors and analyzes the data they provide, explains why her startup chose to work with MDUs as opposed to a home where every floor plan is different and the effort to connect a few outlets and lightbulbs is arbitrary.

Instead Iotas has signed a partnership with the nation’s largest property management company and is part of a pilot project in Portland, Oregon that has outfitted 100 units with $900 worth of sensors to learn how residents can save money, automate their homes and live more productive lives. Before we discuss Iotas, my colleague Kevin Tofel and I spend time talking about the new, faster Raspberry Pi, a smart home security product called the Canary and a contest we’re hosting to give away a Chamberlain MyQ connected garage door opener to any listener who submits a question between now and the end of the month.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guests: Sce Pike, CEO of Iotas

Much excitement over the new Pi and Microsoft’s plans for it
Nest drama and thoughts on the new Canary home security device
We are holding a contest so email us your questions about the internet of things and the smart home to iotpodcast@gigaom.com
Data privacy when you’re collecting data on 100 apartment residents
Why apartments make ideal labs for smart home data collection

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One Response to “Connected apartments may be smarter than connected homes”

markjnorton February 4, 2015

Ms. Pike spoke about collecting data from the new sensors that Iotas is making. I see the value in this (and it is a cool idea), and started to get concerned about the security/privacy aspects. I started thinking about who owns my interactions with my home? It was quite nice to have your guest start to answer these questions a bit later in the interview. I like Iotas’ approach to home data because I believe that I own my interaction data and I expect to be compensated for sharing it with commercial entities.

Exactly how much my data is worth is a matter for the market to decide. I see the value that Iotas offers by providing free devices and service as part of their beta program. I got the sense that people were informed and that they needed to “opt in” to particpate. This is very good on their part and I’d like to see other companies adopting a similar attitude towards the value of home (etc) data.

February 4, 2015 at 5:56 am