“Things I’ve Learned from Lately” is a regular compilation of articles that have made me a smarter marketer. Hopefully, they’ll help you, too.

Bringing Approachability to the Internet of Things - Bug Labs is a company that aims to make it easy to create Internet of Things applications with its new Freeboard service. The service works by offering a one-click method to publish data from an object to its own web page where it can be aggregated and analyzed. All of this is intended to make the Internet of Things more approachable and easily implemented.

Hyper-Transparency - Uber is learning the lesson of Airbnb, Etsy and other successful sharing economy services: transparency rules. This piece from WIRED explores the trust crisis Uber faced when users felt that surge-pricing practices were taking advantage of them. Now, Uber is taking the approach of extreme transparency--sharing the good, the bad, the idealistic and the optimistic.

Insights on the Sharing Economy - SFGate's Carolyn Said captures the highlights from a conference focused on the sharing economy. The event was full of some fascinating insights as speakers noted the shift in how consumers view the world, the speed and scale of sharing economy businesses and the risks around sharing economy regulation.

Redefining Your Online Reputation - Toby Sterling of Bloomberg Businessweek follows the decision by Europe's highest court that forces Google and other search engines to remove links to online content that is old or hurts someone's reputation upon request—"the right to be forgotten." The article points out that privacy advocates are embracing the decision, while others are concerned about what this could do the the free flow of information.

Because My Friends Told Me To… - Harvard Business Review shares findings around how bringing peers into consumer experiences can entice behavior change as we've seen with the rise of fitness trackers. The article goes on to outline a strategic approach marketers can take to leveraging peer pressure for their businesses.