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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/nov/10/optus-went-down-and-the-smart-lights-came-on-and-then-marayke-was-stranded-in-bed>
"Marayke Jonkers first realised something was wrong when all her bedroom lights
turned on early in the morning. All the devices in the Paralympian’s home are
smart – they need the internet to work. When the internet went down, the lights
went on and she couldn’t turn them off.
Wednesday’s Optus outage left her trapped in bed, unable to contact a support
worker, with no access to food or water, and no idea what was going on. Jonkers
– a paratriathlete, a Paralympic swimmer and the co-vice-president of People
with Disability Australia (PWDA) – couldn’t get support until Thursday morning.
Losing the phone service itself was bad enough. People were unable to call
loved ones, or call for help.
Then there was the effect of the internet outage. It cost businesses thousands
of dollars, train services stopped running, banking was affected.
And in homes around Australia, smart devices were no longer so smart. Most
Australian homes have at least one connected device, and Telsyte predicts they
will have an average of 33 connected devices by 2026.
People manage their homes through voice assistants. Televisions, lights and
music systems, while heating and cooling can be controlled via the internet.
There were tales of automatic cat feeders, fish pond filtration systems and
watering systems grinding to a halt.
But the impact on people who depend on internet-assisted technology went well
beyond that. While some systems can be operated manually if necessary, and
there is emergency access for some people, those like Jonkers were left to fend
for themselves."
The only IoT device in our house is a Google Nest Mini which we only use to
enquire about the weather and the time of day. But those who have no choice
about relying on technology like Maryake Jonkers in this article definitely
deserve better planned and implemented solutions.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
