Modeling the Internet of Things- Towards the Information Systems Research View

Being a complex topic Internet of Things (IoT) involves multiple disciplines and approaches. In this paper an initial overview of the modeling techniques within the IoT by the Information Systems researchers is provided. These descriptive results offer a basis for discussion about the research topics that are important in IoT for the Information Systems Research community as well as the first overview of the keywords that the authors use to describe their work in IoT- related context. Publications from the IoT context, including some of the topic areas in smart environment from the AIS electronic library were analyzed towards their application of models within their result presentation. The focus of this preliminary analysis is the description of the application and dissemination of modeling in IoT research. Additionally, the results offer insights into the purpose of the model usage by the topic areas under analysis. The findings indicate that the publications that put themselves directly into the IoT context by mentioning it in the paper title, abstract or keywords frequently provide a general overview on the area and mostly do not involve formal modeling, while a more specific specialization requires the usage of formal modeling tools.