I had few constraints ... other than I was encouraged to include as many Sun products as I could into the design. Some made it ... some didn't.

I had a lot of fun with the project and learned a lot. Ultimately what I walked out of there with was the realization that technology that was once only accessible to the corporate world was now within reach of the normal Toms like you and me. We too could control almost anything with our PDA. All we needed now was some manufacturers to "get it" and create some products to realize the vision and then some integrators to make it accessible to all of us.

Good news is ... I think the manufacturers get it now. You can actually buy products off-the-shelf that provide useful and "intelligent" functionality at a fraction of the cost of only a couple of years ago.

The hurdle now, as it was in the corporate world a few years ago, is "How can I get this stuff to work together?" Altough there are quite a few companies out there now that are starting to provide good solutions, the integration piece of the puzzle is still a huge problem, even for the tech-savvy consumer.

I see technology integration as the biggest issue to conquer in convincing consumers of the lifestyle benefits of these modern "intelligent" devices.

The ITS family of properties' mission is to help solve this integration issue.

Thanks.
Tom Gardner
President & CTO
iOpen, Inc.