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The era of Internet of Things : towards a smart world
Mohamed K., Springer International Publishing, New York, NY, 2019. 118 pp. Type: Book (978-3-030181-32-1)
Date Reviewed: Sep 25 2020

A very short text of just over 100 pages, this book has a catchy title and the author claims it contains everything needed to start working with the Internet of Things (IoT). Unfortunately, such a claim is an enormous exaggeration. The book consists of five chapters, with the longest being 25 pages. Each of the chapters is a collection of definitions, with no focus on anything and no discussion or any type of analysis. As such, none of the chapters have even the value or depth of an encyclopedia, where knowledge is presented with a focus on the broader public.

Each chapter ends with a long list of sources, but the content of the chapter strongly suggests that the author added a lot of “dead” sources just for the sake of volume. The book has plenty of visuals, many of which do not describe any concept and thus do not add any clarity or value to the text. The author uses words without carefully thinking of their meaning, just to make catchy sentences. For example, in chapter 1, the author claims to provide “SWOT analysis of IoT,” but in fact gives a collection of four subpoints, none of which qualifies for providing any analysis at all. Encyclopedia.com defines analysis as “detailed examination of the elements or structure of something”; there is no detailed examination of any subject dealing with IoT in this book.

Another example from chapter 1 is Section 4.3, “Managing IoT Devices Using Blockchain Platform.” The content of this section (less than half a page) has nothing to do with any management or any devices. Instead, the author gives a common definition of blockchain on a very general level.

The book’s so-called IoT case studies include 32 models, most of which are described in no more than two sentences. Interested readers should look to other sources; I can recommend “Blockchains and smart contracts for the Internet of Things” [1], which provides readers with a much better understanding of blockchains.

In summary, this book is very disappointing, though it could be of interest to a high school audience or popular science buffs.

Reviewer:  Stefka Tzanova Review #: CR147069 (2102-0019)
1) Christidis, K.; Devetsikiotis, M. Blockchains and smart contracts for the Internet of Things. IEEE Access 4, (2016), 2292–2303.
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