2015 is shaping up to be a very interesting year indeed. Based just on the projects already confirmed, I will be digging into a pretty wide range of areas – most of which are defined as _vertical + connectivity_, or _what happens if you connect __________?_ Or framed differently still, _How does connectivity change products & manufacturing, cities & governance, cars, interaction design, agriculture?_
– A [research report](/2015/01/19/a-smart-city-and-responsive-governance-report-for-the-german-government/) for use by the German government will focus on connected cities: Implications, governance, data, responsiveness.
– A longer-term research project about IoT in agriculture, which also happens to allow me to work with [Alex/Designswarm](http://designswarm.com), which is always a pleasure.
– And of course [ThingsCon](http://thingscon.com), our conference about how to build connected services and products. Kind of a big collective meta take on the theme of connectedness, of _plugging the internet into _______.
All of these topics will naturally also play a role at [NEXT conference](http://nextconf.eu), which will take place [in Hamburg in the fall](/2015/02/04/next-conf-joins-reeperbahn-festival/) this year, and to some degree at another project that is still under wraps.
Then there are three content-based products I’m co-developing:
– [Connected](http://makeitconnected.com), a (somewhat irregularly published, *cough cough!*) print magazine about IoT.
– A travel/souvenir centered thing ([as briefly mentioned here](http://www.brandeins.de/archiv/2015/selbstbestimmung/netzpiloten-alt-98er/)).
– And a super-condensed monthly briefing on emerging technologies for executives, called [The Imaginary Unit](http://theimaginaryunit.com), this with [Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino](http://designswarm.com) and [Patrick Tanguay](http://pkty.ca/en/).
There’s a pattern in all these projects, by the way. One I’m more and more explicitly working towards: These are all things that I don’t tackle working by myself, but always with one or several partners. It’s become more and more clear to me how important it is to me to work within teams; this is a way to make that happen.
