From Smart Home to Connected Home

Abstract

Until quite recently, the development of smart homes as a new form of housing, combining both novel computer applications within and network access without, seemed appealing and imminent. The expectation was that new smart home technologies would alter how families entertain themselves with mum’s and dad’s sharing ‘lean forward’ interaction experiences on the internet enabled TV, for example (See Taylor & Harper, 2003: pp115-126); it was thought too that kids would be provided with revolutionary educational tools that would alter the relationship they had with homework (and with the institution of school) (Randall, 2004: pp227-246). Perhaps most commonplace – and thus hardly worth citing any instances of this view - was the assertion that those individuals who chose to work at home would find all the networked access they required delivered to their door: only old fashioned habit and the occasional face to face meeting would force them to leave and actually go to work. Work would come home; travel would reduce.