Internet of connected ServGoods: Considerations, consequences and concerns

In an earlier paper (Tien 2012), the author augurs that, in contrast to the first and second industrial revolutions which respectively focused on the development and the mass production of goods, the next - or third - industrial revolution is focused on the integration of services and/or goods; it began in this second decade of the 21st Century. The Third Industrial Revolution (TIR) is underpinned by the integration or mass customization of services and/or goods. The benefits of real-time mass customization cannot be over-stated as goods and services become indistinguishable and are co-produced as ServGoods, resulting in an overwhelming economic advantage to the industrialized countries where the consuming customers are at the same time the co-producing producers. Adding sensors to these ServGoods and letting them connect or communicate among themselves or with other ServGoods can result in an Internet of Things (i.e., connected ServGoods). A number of considerations, consequences and concerns relating to such an Internet of Connected ServGoods are discussed herein.