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Straight Outta Nowhere
A couple of months ago, I received direct message via twitter from some dude asking if I was interested in writing for his up and coming website. After some back and forth, I decided that, yes, I have the time for this. More importantly, as I learned more about what they were trying to do, I realized that I wanted to write for Qioto whether I had the time or not. (Then I was employed, so time really was an issue. Now I'm not traditionally employed and the actual writing is not much of an issue.)
What was so intriguing? A few things. First, Nikos, who was the one to contact me, his partner Stavros and I have a lot in common. We're all intrigued by the possibilities of the Internet of Things, especially as it applies to the consumer, smart home market. Secondly, we're interested in helping people wade through the myriad of options available to them as they start exploring how to make their dumb home smart. Finally, we're all doing this in our free time. This is a labor of love (though we would all love for it to become something more).
Finally, Qioto fits an empty niche. Most of the tech sites that are writing about smart home systems are not focused only on smart homes but also cover technology on a broad front. They have the luxury of hiring teams of writers and throwing them at projects, but they aren't, at their heart, specialists. The other sites that are out there are ones generated by the product manufacturers or protocol licensing bodies. They are definitely specialists, but they are not without their own agenda. Qioto is focused entirely on smart home product discovery and is not backed by anyone. That may change (food needs to go in so fingers can type), but in the mean time, we're going to do our best to provide as unbiased an opinion as possible. But still an opinion.
Schmoid Stays
So, I'll be writing a weekly blog over there. In fact, I already have several posts live on the site. But this blog stays. I will not be transitioning this site over to that site. Instead, I'll have a weekly post in both places. And that's because I believe that the two sites serve different purposes.
The Internet of Schmoid is just me pontificating on the current state of IoT. I get to talk about whatever I want and in whatever way that I want. Heck, I don't even re-read these things before I post them. You are getting my frontal lobe on a web page. If I want to talk about Virtual Reality one week and whine about Smart Bulbs on another, I can do that because no one is stopping me.
On the Qioto site, I also don't have much control. Nikos has told me to write what I want how I want and to post away. He's given me a lot of trust and I'm trying not to betray it. Because the site is more focused on home automation and control, I'm limiting myself to a more focused set of topics. My posts will still include rants and links to weird gifs. However, those rants will be around IFTTT and what to name the things you connect. It will have more directed advice on the issues that I've encountered setting up my smart home system, instead of whatever buzzword caught my eye this week.
Loyal Reader...
I encourage you to subscribe to both sites. I hope that, if you are enjoying what I write here, that you'll also enjoy what I'm writing there (and the posts from the other authors). Follow us. I'm @schmoid on twitter and Qioto is @QiotoHQ. There are FaceBook and Google+ pages for both, as well. Comment, tweet, +1 us. Whatever works for you. Tell us what you want us to cover. Ask us questions. For my part, I'll do my best to deliver an answer through the most appropriate venue.
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