ow that we are heading towards a "ubiquitous network society", one in which networks and networked devices are omnipresent, none of us will be able to opt out of the connected universe.

In fact us humans will be sharing this connected world with a lot of devices talking to us and to each other, creating an "Internet of Things" according to the UN's International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

"A new dimension has been added to the world of information and communication technologies (ICTs): from anytime, any place connectivity for anyone, we will now have connectivity for anything," the ITU says in the breathless prose it reserves for its annual forecast report. "Connections will multiply and create an entirely new dynamic network of networks ? an Internet of Things." The ITU points to the number of mobile phones in use today, two billion by the end of 2005, as an early form of the network made visible and widespread. Mobile data applications such as SMS, i-mode and Vodafone Live! have brought Internet-like services to people's pockets. The Internet and World Wide Web falls into second place, with 900 million users across the globe.

Meanwhile technologists are busy figuring out how to connect the fridge, a car, perhaps even your dinner, using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. RFID uses radio frequencies to set up communications between tags on objects and sensors that can read information. Through RFID, each object can be given a unique, individual code.

By contrast barcodes currently used on goods only identify the type of good, or its brand.

The ITU's vision underlying the Internet of things revolves around the use of RFID and sensors to extend the communication and monitoring potential of the network of networks. With increases in integrated information processing capacity, industrial products will have "smart" capabilities. They may take on electronic identities that can be queried remotely, or be equipped with sensors for detecting physical changes around them.

The Internet of Things will enable forms of collaboration and communication between people and things, and between things themselves, "hitherto unknown and unimagined", the ITU claims.

The introduction of RFID computing power in everyday items such as razors, shoes and packaging is the other side of this vision. More recent applications range from RFID on ski passes to tagging children at schools for security reasons.

RFID tags are even being implanted under human skin for medical purposes. The Baja Beach Club uses RFID to automatically identify guests who have VIP access to its bars. Embedding RFID in drivers' licences, passports or cash are under consideration by various governments. RFID readers are now being embedded in mobile phones. Nokia released its RFID-enabled phones for businesses in the mid-2004. It plans to launch RFID consumer handsets next year.

The one barrier to widespread use remains consumer concerns over privacy and data protection, particularly as sensors and smart tags can track a user's movements, habits and preferences on a perpetual basis. But whatever the concern, one thing remains clear, no one will be able to escape the scientific and technological advances.

While I was writing this article, I noticed that Thomas Friedman's book The World is Flat has won the inaugural Financial Times and Goldman Sachs business book of the year award.

In his commentary article for the award Friedman endorses the view that technological networks are going to end up transforming our lives.

"The world is moving from a place where value was created in vertical silos of command and control to a world where value is increasingly going to be created horizontally by how you connect and collaborate," he writes.

There goes vacation time.