Happy 5th Birthday

The Things Network posted about their 5th year anniversary in August 2020. I had in mind that they started in July, but like most projects, pinning the start to a date is a difficult task and usually done retrospectively. I heard a similar discussion about Google’s birthday.

The Things Network 5th Anniversary card graphic
The Things Network 5th Anniversary August 2020

I learnt about The Things Network (TTN) in November 2015 when Mark Stanley presented the project at the monthly Reading Geek Night event. He concluded by saying how he loved the project for it’s open source aims and goal of bringing simple connectivity to everyone across the globe. Mark wanted to make Reading and Berkshire a leading adopter of the technology, and invited the audience to join him creating TTN Reading. I loved the idea too! The rest is history and is written up in other posts here and elsewhere. We will celebrate our 5 years in November and I am keeping my fingers crossed that we can do so face to face, rather than via video. We haven’t stopped during lock-down, though our projects have been hampered and rollouts delayed, as Autumn arrives we are seeing unseasonable green shoots, which is great, and as I think on how TTN has grown from zero to …. well, as they write in their blog ::

Together, we are embracing open standards, creating a breeding ground for innovation and pushing the boundaries of IoT. Among the most significant achievements of these years are:
117 000 users from 150 countries
1000 communities
13 000 gateways
340 000 devices

And with this smart new look to Thingitude, here’s to the next 5! – Mike

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