Enabling Open Markets for the Web of Things [pdf]

It seems like this is more of, "Let's take these things that are going to talk on the Internet to centralized services and try to make sure that those centralized services give 3rd parties ways to use the data which has been collected" more than actually putting lots of "things" onto the web for direct interaction. Although some portions of the slide deck do seem to indicate otherwise.

I think the biggest problem holding back 3rd parties using the IoT/WoT data is that the old mental models for such data (like all the electric meters are read by the electric company and they send you a bill) is very centralized, so that's what we are seeing so far. The sensors are still feeding data to one central place and there's really no incentive to share that data besides directly with the customer.

What exactly am I going to do with the data my "things" collect? That question hasn't been answered yet, as far as I can tell. Once companies making "things" start answering this question in a compelling way, then I think lots of other "things" will follow a similar model and the space will flourish, so it's good to see the W3C getting some publicity on making things open before this happens.

I still have no intention of buying a "smart" or "Internet connected" thing besides computers, media devices (game consoles, chromecast, etc), and my phone. I'm sure others feel similarly, so what kind of product would convince me to change my stance?