thingscon.org

What it is

Founded in 2014, ThingsCon is a global non-profit technology community operated by two entities: a foundation based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and an association based in Germany. Its core mission is to explore and advance the fair, responsible, and human-centered development of the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and related digital technologies. It is one of the most influential communities in the global responsible technology space.

Core Functions and Positioning

ThingsCon's core work centers on content and events: it hosts the annual flagship conference TH/NGS every December in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and organizes small themed salons around the world throughout the year. It also publishes free industry research reports including The State of Responsible IoT and podcast content, runs an open communication community for industry practitioners, and supports eligible individual applicants to launch local chapters. As a non-profit organization, all public content is free to access, and it charges no brand licensing fees to local organizers.

Pros and Cons

Pros: ThingsCon has been deeply rooted in this field for a decade, building an extensive network of industry experts and producing highly professional content. All of its research is completely open and free, making it extremely valuable for industry research. Additionally, the organization practices what it preaches on privacy protection and inclusivity: it only collects the minimum data required for operations, explicitly prohibits all forms of discrimination, and fosters an open, friendly community atmosphere.

Cons are also very clear: all core events are held in Europe, making in-person participation extremely difficult for attendees from other regions. New fellowship recruitment is currently paused. The entire platform is English-only with no Chinese content at all, which is very unfriendly to Chinese users. It also imposes many rules and restrictions on local organizers, and does not allow commercial organizations to host events, which limits community expansion to some extent.

Who It's For and Access From China

The website is currently directly accessible. It is suitable for practitioners and industry researchers in the IoT and AI fields who care about tech ethics to access research resources, and for qualified industry professionals to join in-person exchanges. For general users in China, the informational value is limited, but you can still download its public industry reports for free for reference if you want to follow the responsible technology space.