LinkedIn is an excellent website to seek jobs and network with the professionals. People who subscribed to LinkedIn are mostly genuine whereby they will disclose their professional profile in a transparent manner. Thus, you can clearly see their job titles and experiences.

Five or ten years ago, the job titles that bear the word “M2M” were too common, but things have changed since the last two years. Internet of Things is the most hype word in the business world.

When I decided to embark on the business of IoT three years ago, I decided what will be the name of the company and surprisingly, there is no business is Malaysia have “IOT” in their company’s name. Thus, I chose “REDtone IOT” as our company’s name and very excited to be the first in Malaysia. We also created job titles such as – IOT Specialist, IOT Manager, Lead IOT Engineer, etc. These titles are non-existent in LinkedIn during that time.

And later, when I left the company to set up another IoT company, we still choose IoT in the name of new Startup called “FAVORIOT“. We have added “IoT Business Executive” and “IoT Apprentice” as part of the job titles.

And today (2017), things are very different, we can see many jobs which are now focused and specialised in the areas of IoT such as:

• Chief IOT Officer
• IOT Software Engineer
• IOT Application Developer
• IOT Mobile Application Engineer
• IOT Solutions Architect
• General Manager IOT Software
• IOT Product Manager
• IOT Client Solutions Architect
• IOT Solutions Sales Architect
• Partner Development Manager – IOT
• Service Sales Engagement Manager – IOT
• Sales Director IOT
• PR Manager IOT
• IOT Data Analytics
• IOT Ecosystem Technology Intern
• …..and much more

Rarely you will see jobs have M2M titles and even if they do, they will have both “IOT and M2M” in their job title. Probably, people perceived M2M as an “old” technology. Thus, they fancied having IOT that is more fashionable, trendy and the “in-thing.”

The trend using “IOT” as their job titles shows that Internet of Things is becoming a serious business focus. People that have the knowledge and experience in IOT are rare in the market. We see Universities started to offer subjects related to IOT, and this is a good indication that the industry will get more supply of new graduates that have IOT background.

Personally, I see people that have “IOT skills” are very rare breed. They combined multiple skills both from technology (sensors, mobile, cloud, analytics, etc.) and business acumen (solutions selling, partner development, etc.). IOT is here to stay and thus, need to ensure that we have enough pool of resources to make all the “Smart” applications that IOT promised be a reality.

Let’s create the next generation of “IOT specialists”!

What do you think?

About the Author

Dr. Mazlan Abbas the Co-Founder of FAVORIOT Sdn Bhd. He is an IOT Evangelist and a Thought Leader. He received an award as 50 Most Impactful Smart Cities Leaders by World CSR 2017. He is ranked No. 20th Thought Leader in IOT by 2014 Onalytics Report – “The Internet of Things – Top 100 Thought Leaders”, ranked Top 10 in IoT Top 100 Influencers by Postscapes 2016/2017, ranked Top 100 in Smart Cities Top Experts by Agilience Authority Index May 2016. You can reach him on LinkedIn or Twitter. Check all his presentation slides HERE

There are three (3) basic steps in building smart cities:

1. Digitize your infrastructure
2. Build a real-time data platform
3. Engage your community

Waze is a GPS-based geographical navigation application for smartphones with GPS support. Waze Ltd. was founded in 2008 in Israel by Uri Levine, software engineer Ehud Shabtai, and Amir Shinar. In June 2013 Google bought Waze for $1.1 billion, adding a social data aspect to its mapping business. Since November 2012, in monetizing its app, Waze offers resellers and advertisers a web interface to advertise based on locations where a small icon will appear in a particular place for an interested Wazer to engage with the ads.

However, with all the data that has been collected by Waze, I think it’s such a waste that the developers are unable to utilize them fully. Waze collected the data directly from the Wazers who willingly share their data to the cloud and in return will get the latest update about the best traffic routes and its alternatives etc.

Waze has captured Terabytes or Petabytes of mapping and real-time data from many major cities around the world. Why can’t we use these data to help the city municipals plan and build better roads to prevent the horrendous traffic jams faced by the public every day? Here are some of the data that Wazers have been willingly share:

1. Traffic Jam level – moderate, heavy or standstill
   
2. Police
3. Accident – minor or major
4. Hazard – on-road, shoulder or weather
5. Camera – Speed, red light or fake
6. Map issue
7. Pave new roads (if there’s none on the map) – Waze will get the latest map when new roads are paved.
8. Speed of vehicle
9. Location of vehicle
10. Photos of the destination

I believed the city/urban planners would love to have these data to help them accurately plan the city roads in the future. The public will have a better picture where to live and work. Housing estates will know how to price their property. Businesses will know where to strategically build their offices. In fact, there are many other benefits if we are able to use the Waze data. It’s such a waste if Google limit the Waze data for advertising only.

But there’s also an option. What if we can build a similar “Waze-like” application ourselves rather than depending on Google’s Waze? And later share these data to our developers?

FAVORIOT developed FAVORSENSE, a crowdsourcing solution using mobile app that collected information about city’s issues. Favorsense also provides backend solution that can handle all the issues.

Favorsense is a CrowdSensing platform that allows public and private parties to build better Communities and Cities.

Crowdsensing Management Platform (CMP) – Problem resolution backend system that eases the workflow in handling issues.

Field Force – The public, private or communities can join hands in resolving any problems.

Insights – Crowdsensing data are aggregated and decision making can be made based on the insights.

About the Author

Dr. Mazlan Abbas the Co-Founder of FAVORIOT Sdn Bhd. He is an IOT Evangelist and a Thought Leader. He received an award as 50 Most Impactful Smart Cities Leaders by World CSR 2017. He is ranked No. 20th Thought Leader in IOT by 2014 Onalytics Report – “The Internet of Things – Top 100 Thought Leaders”, ranked Top 10 in IoT Top 100 Influencers by Postscapes 2016/2017, ranked Top 100 in Smart Cities Top Experts by Agilience Authority Index May 2016. You can reach him on LinkedIn or Twitter. Check all his presentation slides HERE

EPF’s Inaugural IT Day – Oct. 9, 2017