APIs and Interconnectivity

ISO needs to take a greater role in increasing interconnectivity between industry across the planet, with the help of the leading firms in the respective sectors. When developers deploy applications, there should be a baseline of trust in information and data formats that empower individual and group actors to cooperate swiftly. Think of how quickly a transaction can take place with a NFC-capable wearable device vs. the physical exchange of currency.

Numerous issues and problems that humanity faces can be traced to units of transfer “lost” in the system, or that which slips through the cracks of observation. With the advent of Internet of Things (IoT) technology, and the expansion of the IP address space in IPv6, this enables an increasingly large set of units to be addressed and tracked. From Wikipedia:

The very large IPv6 address space supports a total of 2128 (about 3.4×1038) addresses – or approximately 5×1028 (roughly 295) addresses for each of the roughly 6.5 billion (6.5×109) people alive today. In a different perspective, this is 252 addresses for every observable star in the known universe.

Wikipedia

In theory, every cell in the human body could have its own address. An extreme example, but the usefulness of identifying and tracking objects in motion is apparent. Wal-Mart revolutionized the retail market with advanced computing technology for its time- they knew the exact location of all product in their logistics flow. We can go even bigger than this, and have a more decisive impact on the health of every individual.

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