Enabling the Masses to Become Creative in Smart Spaces

In this chapter we present a first analysis towards the enablement of mass creativity in the Internet of Things, potentially leading to a wide range of new tangible, interactive applications that leverage the fundamental new possibilities of an emerging Web of Things. After an introduction of the socio-cultural practice of ‘Do-it-Yourself’ (DiY) as apparent in society, and a discussion on what DiY can mean for the Internet of Things, we introduce a typology of how people can potentially create and customise on top of the Internet of Things. Based on that, we elaborate three concepts forming a basis for new creation paradigms in such smart spaces, potentially leading to new DiY-enabling functions in Internet of Things service creation environments: the Call-Out Internet of Things, the Smart Composables Internet of Things, and the Phenomena Internet of Things. Next to a discussion of applicable state-of-the-art for implementing parts of these concepts, we show first experimental grounding for them, as part of the ongoing exploration process.