“The network is the computer.”

That’s the old Sun Microsystems slogan coined by Sun computer scientist and researcher John Gage. The slogan predated cloud computing, but it’s a great way to envision the cloud idea.

The slogan for today should be: “The house is the Internet of Things appliance.”

OK, that’s not nearly as elegant as the Sun slogan. But I think the successful model for home automation is where the home has intelligence built in, and where the house itself is “smart,” with sensors and brains, while other devices simply add capability. The idea of a smart home is a smart idea when the home is built smart from the start.

Here’s the first step: We need homes designed architecturally and otherwise with automation built in, not as an afterthought, but as a primary objective.

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