New data from the open source reveals the story of a simple javascript function. One line of code was re-invented over 100 times and duplicated over 1,000 times across GitHub’s top 10,000 repositories. This is only a symptom of a much deeper problem.

Imagine every time you wanted to drive a car, you had to build new wheels. People would probably still be riding horses to work. Elegant, some might say, but a terrible waste of time and effort. New data shows this is exactly what is happening in 2017. If you are a developer, you might be reinventing the smallest of functionalities across repositories and microservices every day.

Code components are the fundamental building blocks of any application. they are the atomic building blocks of our technological future. Different functionalities can and should be reused across different applications, repositories, and projects. In practice, this rarely happens. Instead, people often re-invent or duplicate the same code over and over again.The overhead of creating and maintaining hundreds of tiny repositories and micro-packages simply isn’t practical.

To see how deep and how far the phenomenon goes, we took a deep look into the guts of the open source on GitHub.

The story of “isString”

A semantic code identification technology was used to take a deep look into the guts of the open source on GitHub. The top 10,000 Javascript repositories were analyzed. Our scanners were looking to see how many times people reinvented one simple functionality: checking if a variable is a string. Normally, this can be done with 1-4 lines of code. Here are the results:

This simple functionality had been written in more than 100 different ways across only 10K repositories. The top 10 implementations were duplicated over 1,000 times. Given that GitHub hosts 55 Million repositories, the same function was duplicated millions of times. Here are a few examples from top open source projects:

Although it is true that change is necessary for evolution, these numbers mean bad new for everyone, for two main reasons:

First, constantly reinventing small pieces of code takes time and effort. Not only is it wasteful, but it actually holds back innovation. Reinvention Competes for the same time and resources which could better have been invested in building new things.

Second, code duplications are bad. Trying to fix a bug duplicated across dozens of places is hard and takes large amounts of time, and is also likely to break stuff. The larger the code base and the more repositories you have, the worse it becomes.

Why is it happening

The obvious solution would be to make code components reusable across repositories. Much had been said about code reusability. Renown community members post about designing reusable pieces of code. Others debate and struggle to force small components into their own repositories and packages. Most agree, there are three major problems that prevent us from building an arsenal of hundreds of small reusable components:

1. Creation Overhead: Creating a new repository and a package for every small component will take a lifetime. There is simply too much configuration overhead required to make this process practical at scale.


2. Maintenance: maintaining dozens or hundreds of tiny repositories and packages is no joke and neither is modifying small packages going through multiple demanding steps every time (cloning, Linking, debugging etc.). This may very well end up taking more time and effort than it could save.


3. Discoverability: packages are hard to find. No one can say for sure what’s really out there, or what to trust and use (we all remember the left-pad story). Organizing hundreds of micro-packages and quickly finding the right one to use is no easy task.

Bottom line is: very few people create and maintains such an arsenal of micro-packages.

Write code once, use it anywhere

So, how can we change things? A good place to start would be dealing with the three problems: making reusable components quick to create, simple to maintain and easy to find.

To do exactly that, a new open source project called Bit has been recently released to GitHub. But is a virtualized code component repository. It enables developers to build a set of reusable components and use them anywhere they are needed.

In a way that might sound somewhat similar (although different) to what Docker did for VMs, Bit adds a virtualized level of abstraction. It allows developers to create reusable components with almost no overhead at all and use them as a dynamic API. This means using nothing but the code actually used in your application.

Bit solves all of the three problems mentioned above using a virtual repository called a “Scope.“ A Scope allows you to create and model components without the overhead we know today. DDeveloperscan then find and use them with a unique NLP based semantic search engine. Scopes are distributed, which adds similar advantages known from a distributed Git repository. They can be created anywhere, and even connected to create a distributed network. A contained and reusable environment helps each component run and build anywhere. Scopes also help when collaborating as a team.

And in conclusion…

Code duplications (or reinvention) are a serious problem, and the data drawn from GitHub shows how widespread it really is. This is happening mainly because there isn’t a practical alternative that makes it possible to create a growing set of reusable components.  Open source projects such as Bit or others can help solve this problem, saving valuable time and effort.

Bit is language agnostic by design, and uses special drivers to work with different languages. In the not so distant future, we could all work with virtual code bases composing pieces of code together to build anything (as described in the Unix philosophy). Meanwhile, using Bit or finding new ways to reuse atomic components would be a good place to start.

It’s not every day that you meet a startup with showcasing technology that sounds like something of out of the Cold War. Like the use of sound waves to transmit data from one device to another, eschewing the need for QR codes, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or NFC. But this exists thanks to the work of the team at Chirp, a group of scientists, acoustic technologists, and engineers that emanated out of University College London.

A Chirp is a sonic barcode. Data and content can be encoded into a unique audio stream. Any device with a speaker can transmit a chirp and most devices with a microphone can decode them. I spoke to CEO Moran Lerner to find out more.

Lerner explained:

“Chirp was born out of extensive research, through which we saw a series of pain points across several sectors that could be solved. it is old technology that we have reinvigorated to help new technologies. Data is encoded into a series of pitches and tones on the sending device and decoded on the receiving device. We refer to this method of transmitting data-over-sound as asmodulation/demodulation. These pitches and tones can be either ultrasonic, or audible where ultrasonic frequencies are unable to work, such as in radio broadcasting, or where the hardware is not capable of transmitting ultrasonic frequencies.”

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Chirp can also extend an existing network infrastructure by creating data-over-audio links between individual devices and a network that is safe to use even in RFD-restricted environments, enabling the connection of the 90% of devices in the world that wouldn’t normally be part of an IoT ecosystem with the 10% of devices that would. This means offer almost unlimited problem-solving possibilities across all sectors, including telecommunications, financial services, IoT, entertainment and broadcasting, interactive gaming, toys, robotics, transportation and many others. Their technology is used by leading brands in more than 90 countries.

For industrial solutions…

Some of the most innovative applications by Chirp are within industrial environments. As Lerner explained:

“We have clients in nuclear energy where radio frequencies are restricted and regulated in a nuclear power plant. By law, you’re not allowed to have any wifi, bluetooth or NFC and so our technology enables them to become smart factories by putting speakers and microphones into those old legacy buildings. If you walk around a tablet in airplane more and start simply getting all that data in real time instantly which actually ends up saving around a billion pounds a day in operations.”

In such environment, organizations can use Chirp, in order to enable personnel location tracking, access and authentication and data reporting from equipment within the facility. This also works in industries where they are working with chemicals and potentially explosive devices and materials in mining, agriculture, and pharmaceuticals.

…and other solutions

Other applications include Shuttl in India for their ticketing and bus transportation solution, global leader Amdocs for their telecommunications mobile wallet and MNO solutions, and Activision Blizzard for their latest instalment of their $3 billion Skylanders franchise – Skylanders Imaginators, using Chirp to share characters from the game directly to the companion app through sound – bypassing the console and completely offline.
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Chirp recently announced a partnership with Unified Inbox to quickly onboard devices onto their platform. The partnership will allow fast, easy, and secure onboarding of residential, commercial, and government IoT devices. UIB provides natural language communications (NLP) for IoT devices. People can communicate with their devices through the communications channels they already use, simplifying the onboarding process. The Chirp + Unification Engine integration layer can be easily adapted and developed for smart home, smart enterprise, and smart city use cases across verticals including energy, public transit, healthcare, waste/water management, home appliances, and consumer electronics.

The challenges of niche technology

Chirp is part of a growing abundance of IoT-related technology that is emerging from University academia in niches that are highly specialized, researched and studied. As Lerner explains:

“It’s a very, very difficult science to master and what puts us so far ahead is our academic strength, that our work is researched by some of the leading academics on the field. One of the problems we are tackling ourselves is the ethics of how you take a solution to market. We’re not trying to be market leaders by marketing our technology as anything more than what it can actually do. We don’t exaggerate what it can do.

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We are very open and honest about what it can’t do. But one of the biggest issues affecting the tech sector over the last 5 years with the boom of IoT is that you get a lot of companies coming out to raise a lot of capital and the exaggeration of what they claim the technology can do is mind-blowing, So we’ve got a competitor who makes claims about their ultrasonic technology that breaks every known law of physics. We try to keep away from companies like that. But the reason we’re vocal about it and we try to do things with integrity and authenticity is that a company like that doesn’t just affect us. It affects the industry and erodes the trust in the industry.

So many companies are moving towards academia because when you bring in a team of scientists and academics technologists, they are just born to be honest, and to work within the boundaries of what science allows. It’s not just bringing in people because they can add credibility, it’s the way they develop the technology is based on real science.

It means that when you present it to some venture capitalists they might not like what you say, it might not do what want it to do, but at least you are going to market with something that s not actually going to meet and solve real problems rather than promise to deliver and fail, but that was something that actually needs to. A promise to deliver. ”

We have experienced exponential growth in technology over the last decade, coming to a position of solution-focused technology such as Chirp. It’ll be interested to witness their growth in use cases.

The idea of creating better cities is as old as human settlement. Smart cities is our latest iteration, amidst the Fourth Industrial Revolution, now that we have exponentially more data and computing power available affordably. This article will focus on illuminating three counterintuitive trends I have observed with smart cities.

Trend 1: Cheap sensors are not enough

There is a widely ingrained belief that having cheap sensors means we will be able to deploy great products and services to manage water, energy or traffic in our cities. Indeed, the cost of sensors has more than halved in a decade but what hasn’t changed yet is the actual placement of these sensors into the end devices. So if you are trying to do vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) communication, outside of a few highly specialized environments, you simply don’t have enough sensors on the road to be able to do anything meaningful.

Even if you are a well-capitalized company you may face the chasm of adoption, like the cautionary tale of iBeacons. Anyone wishing to innovate within smart cities needs to contend that creating highly specialized environments may actually be a precondition, and potentially pushing them through policy a postcondition.

Amit Garg, Principal, Samsung NEXT Ventures

Trend 2: Be iterative & leapfrog

Leapfrog approaches are the stuff that innovators, especially in Silicon Valley, talk about. Take a radically different approach and disrupt this industry, so goes the mantra. When it comes to smart cities I think nothing could be further from truth. Our technology progresses often much faster than our ability to adapt to them and when it comes to adjusting to new ways of living, potentially even relocating, it just adds a significant barrier.

Case in point, the successful smart city projects are being incubated in vibrant places with a long-standing culture of innovation, whether it be Singapore or Songdo right outside of Seoul. Starting from scratch on the other hands has had setbacks, whether championed by a strong government in Masdar City or a powerful corporation in Celebration, USA. I believe iterative approaches are the way to go ie incremental improvements in a city’s infrastructure rather than drastic overhauls.

Trend 3: You do not need scale

We live in an increasingly urban world — 2007 is widely seen as the year when for the first time in history there were more humans living in cities than in rural areas. But the trend is hyper-urbanization, with people concentrating even more in a few cities, and most of those mega cities increasingly in Asia and Africa.

This means that if you are developing an innovation around smart cities you may not need to get to scale in hundreds of cities, just a few markets might actually do it. In fact, if you can get an innovation working fully even in one mega city you may create a hugely successful company with the due caveat that a single point of failure, especially in an area rife with policy, is a high risk.

The author is currently a Principal at Samsung NEXT Ventures, which houses our early-stage investment arm, headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley. I focus on software, especially Internet & consumer technologies, investing $250K to $3M in seed, series A or B, and helping them partner with Samsung to grow and make a meaningful difference in people’s lives.

As the smart city movement grows around the world, a new study sees Asia emerging as the global smart city leader of the future.

A recent Government Technology  white paper “Evolution of Smart Cities and Connected Communities.” The study was co-sponsored by the Consumer Technology Association and the United Parcel Service (UPS).

The paper focused on rise in worldwide smart city projects, which rose 38% to more than 235 initiatives in 2016 from 170 at the end of 2013. In terms of market value, smart cities jumped from $14.85 billion in 2015 to a predicted value of $34.35 billion by 2020, representing a compound annual growth rate of over 18%.

The paper found that a key driver of smart cities growth was the ongoing trend of global urbanization.

“With 70% of the world’s population forecast to live in cities by 2050, the need for sustainable, livable world cities is essential for a prosperous future,” said the report.

One of the more interesting findings of the research was that Asia, not America, is most likely to emerge as the region leading global smart city development.

Asia’s rosy smart city outlook is largely due to the three factors: pressing urban needs of its population centers; the tech readiness of these cities; and strong government support.

The paper noted that Asia is moving quickly into a leadership position with smart cities due to a steady stream of government investments.

India has a lot of action

India is developing an astonishing 100 new smart cities, while converting 500 other urban areas into smart cities. And China is well on the bandwagon as well, having launched 285 smart city related projects.

David Roegge, UPS’ director of high-tech segment marketing, said that he was not surprised that the report found smart cities were growing strongly in Asia.

He said that many Asian cities are building smart cities from scratch, compared to U.S. cities that are saddled with the costly chore of upgrading legacy infrastructure.

“In some of the Asian areas, India for example, they don’t necessarily need to overhaul their infrastructure, so that gives them an advantage on the speed side,” said Roegge.

Rather than focus on the disruptive and competitive nature of new technology, New York’s smart city czars are emphasizing collaboration with business and other smart cities.

City technology leaders spoke at a recent event hosted by Brooklyn’s Urban-X accelerator for connected city startups.

Representing the city were Chief Technology Officer Miguel Gamiño Jr and Chief Digital Officer Sree Sreenivasan.

See also: Smart city investment opportunities could top $1.6 trillion

They discussed how city governments are shedding their slow moving reputation when it comes to developing smart city initiatives.

Unlike the ultra-competitive private sector, Gamiño said New York City’s government has the latitude to perceive other smart cities as potential partners not as threats. And this collaborative approach has proven to have enhanced government innovation.

Sreenivasan picked up the thread by highlighting New York’s embrace of the open data movement, with the city releasing over 1,600 data sets to date. He said that this has enabled city governments to share best practices and even source code between them.

“The way we’re going to do this is to partner with great cities in the U.S. and overseas,” said Sreenivasan.

The pair also discussed the role that businesses play in developing smart cities, and how New York was actively working with industry to reduce layers of red tape.

Sreenivasan noted that entrepreneurs developing innovative new services or products often face difficulties associated with highly regulated industries.

For startups looking to loosen regulations related to smart city technology, he advised business leaders to help the discussion with the city by presenting a strong business model.

“Being a sustainable business is important in order to make it worthwhile for the city to change these regulations,” said Sreenivasan.

Not just disruption for disruption’s sake

The city representatives also emphasized the importance of not pursuing disruption for disruption’s sake. Rather, they advised connected city startups to focus on the end goal – making citizens’ lives better.

Gamiño said that this is where the city plays a pivotal bridge role, providing the crucial dialog between the next-level tech industry and NYC’s residents.

Ultimately, he says smart city projects need to contribute positively in areas like economic mobility and job opportunities, which are of key importance to residents.

“The question is always, ‘How does this move the needle on issues everybody, not just technical people, are interested in?’” said Gamiño.

New York City was previously awarded “Best Smart City 2016” at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona.