Project Ara and the IoT

 Ara will come with BLE built into the base model gray phone. I am interested in what this looks like 3 years down the road as technology advances and miniaturizes. Here's what it might look like:

This opens up  a world of possibilities, as a module can now operate on its own. In a world of perfect modularity each module will have its own power supply (this concept was laid out at the first DevCon). Betavoltaic batteries would be awesome, but those are hard to find... As chipsets become more efficient, we can begin running radios on very very tiny amounts of energy, thus powering the IoT.

The module above is possible with current technology, but swap out the main BLE chip and things really get interesting. A Wi-Fi powered chipset, though it requires more power, can move much more data. We will soon see LTE chipsets that can mesh, completely changing the economic structure of the internet.

After many months of thought on the matter, I have come to realize that almost everything we see and touch will soon have a networking computer inside. A new kind of network is forming all around us, right now its BLE and bits of Wi-Fi. We have to think about how we can leverage a network like this not only to connect our washing machines, but build a free, open internet than anyone access. 

The democratization of the internet begins not with subsidized internet connections, but with devices we can fit in our pockets. 

And the technology is only going to get better... 

*Note this post represents purely personal opinion and does not reflect the views, pursuits or opinions of any affiliated organization or company.