Examples of smarter planet: BeijingAir tweets
There is a sensor of some sort in Beijing that is measuring the quality of the air in that city and broadcasting the information via Twitter. (BeijingAir (BeijingAir) on Twitter)
In some ways, this may seem like a set back from a webcam. But in other ways, it is better, because now someone could take this data and do some analysis of it over time, or do a mashup with it. It’s a small example of instrumentation and it is interconnected via the web and Twitter. Now to do something intelligent with the data.