The Challenges of Opportunities of COVID-19 for IoT and Innovation

COVID-19 has hit globally with a reach and scale far beyond what we could ever have imagined. Besides the significant impacts our health and that of our families and friends, how we live our daily lives has shifted. Our home is no longer a haven but a powerhouse of work, leisure and childminding and everything in between.

I live in the city of Berlin, a city that is a mish-mash of innovation adverse and innovation when it comes to daily life (despite whatever attestations you here about Germany and efficiency). Before COVID-19, cash was king. Faxes and posts were still commonplace when it came to dealing with healthcare and government officials — OK, you mostly had to submit paperwork in person. GDPR and privacy are prioritized over digital tracking (stay tuned for an additional article expanding on this). It may be 2020, but the ICILS (International Computer and Information Literacy Study) in 2019 found that only 26.2 per cent of young people in Germany attend a school where both teachers and students have access to a WiFi network. This puts Germany behind the international average of 64.9 per cent.

Juxtapose this with the tech sector, Berlin, which includes over 1,500 startups with a new company formed in Germany every 20 mins — including over 59 blockchain startups , a myriad of incubators, accelerators…