Unpacking the 'Thing' in the Internet of Things

We have arrived at a critical juncture in the history of information systems. Billions of electronic nodes (commonly called "things") are now linked to the internet and by 2020 the number of such nodes will increase to 50 billion. These devices will help shape the environment we live in, analyzing, controlling, monitoring, and optimizing our world. Mankind is now going through a transformative era during which the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) will signal a major shift in our technical and socio-technical landscape. This shift will be as significant as the intro-duction of the PC and will integrate several core information technologies including mobile communications, cloud computing, and data analytics. Guided by Heidegger's thinking, and using the IoT Nest device as a case-in-point, we advocate an approach to the future research of the nascent IoT phenomenon that would take account of (a) individuals' sense of proximity and its influence on their engagement with the world around them, (b) how people conceive of the things around them, and (c) how they relate to the basic constituents of the world