I’m not sure if there has been any talk about the Social Grid but I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about it. When I say Social Grid, I mean managing and sharing energy usage online. Bleeding edge developers and early adopters of technology are not averse to sharing their energy usage online. But if the internet is going to be a reliable and secure tool for managing energy usage by the mass market, there are various attributes required.
The social grid is a reality now, with the Government about to start trialling a social networking type system for a small sample of communities spread across the UK. Each community will compete and compare energy usage.
So with this in mind, here is my attempt at defining the social grid. This is very much a work in progress, which no doubt will be added over time and discussed and criticised etc. I look forward to peoples thoughts on these initial points. Let’s try and shape the future of energy monitoring.
In the Social Grid
1. The user is boss and can restrict or share energy usage data as they wish
2. Data is anonymous for public consumption on the internet and in comparison tables
3. Monitoring devices and hardware must be low power
4. Integration with online services for mashup analysis of data like the AMEE API
5. A user can share real, anonymous, randomised or event driven data to users or groups of users with online services
6. Cross platform and cross device
8 Comments
Lots to tuck into, where to begin:
1) security – you really, really don’t want someone working out when you’re not in, and robbing you
2) lifestyle – people lead different lifestyles, and use energy in different places. The “Homeworker” may have less transport miles, but will appear to use more energy at home, compared to the office worker, whose boss pays for it
3) Current domestic meters just aren’t up to reliable live readings. CC is excellent in the way it stores historical data, Though the format drives me crazy. 2 hour blocks might be a memory trade-off, I think we will need greater precision
4) Electricity is just a small part of energy consumption. The average houses electricity consumption: 4.5MWh, gas: 25MWh
Is it going to be a Zap Carbon contest?
nice start
T
Chris we have been building some close to your social Grid idea with makehistori.net and using Current Cost data. Users can decide if their data is public or private. Other data can be mashed up like electric bills, stock prices, weather – in fact anything that has a timeline associated with it. Example of using #makehistori and #currentcost for Social Net http://twitpic.com/11dd67 and live http://tinyurl.com/yj6f5tu
Who is looking at this in the Government?
Defining the social grid. Look forward to comments on defining how the social grid should work #homecamp #currentcost http://bit.ly/c3TyXs
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Great new term for how we need to share data about our energy usage to reduce it – The Social Grid. http://bit.ly/bRGVCA #homecamp
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RT @monkchips: Great new term for how we need to share data about our energy usage to reduce it – The Social Grid. http://bit.ly/bRGVCA
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Defining the social grid by #currentcost’s @yellowpark http://bit.ly/9Syh3W
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Loving the idea of social grids http://bit.ly/9Syh3W
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
RT @current_cost: Defining the social grid by #currentcost’s @yellowpark http://bit.ly/9Syh3W
This comment was originally posted on Twitter