The government is taking its crazy obsession with buzzword of the moment, “the Internet of Things” – the mystical technological future in which everything from fridges to roads will be connected to the internet – to the next level. They’re doling out £10 million of taxpayer dough in an IoT based competition…

The £10 million pot is being offered by DCMS and the rebranded Technology Strategy Board, Innovate UK, as a prize to anyone who thinks they have a brilliant IoT based idea. As with all things IoT, the competition brief is a little vague:

“IoT is a major area of growth and will have a transformative effect on society… This competition will be instrumental in discovering new connections between city services and their users, and identifying many more advantages that the Internet of Things could offer.”

So a competition about a new and exciting thing to discover why the new and exciting thing is new and exciting. Great…