This week brings the news that an US radar that launched into space aboard an Indian spacecraft has detected craters filled with ice on the moon.

Behind the innovation and bleeding edge headlines must lie a lot of seemingly mundane collaboration between technologists in India and USA.
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With all the high profile initiatives in USA and Europe, it is tempting to think that e-health is a ‘western’ concept. While it is true that the idea of e-health is getting a lot of coverage in the West, it may actually arise earlier in emerging markets.

This is not as far-fetched as it first sounds.
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If you have been watching tech and media trends – you cannot miss the rise of 3D (three dimensional)) film (not to be confused with HD i.e. High definition video).

3D is significant because on one hand, the Web is a force that tends to commoditize content (movies, music etc) by changing the business model (a song sold for 99 cents on iTunes). In contrast, 3D offers an opportunity to reverse that trend by creating new sources of revenue.
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Throughout the industrialized world legislation for greenhouse gas emissions is being, or will likely be enacted, over the coming years. These programs will introduce significant operational/financial cost impacts as well as opportunities for many industrial sectors.
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ICT in general is both a heavy user of energy, and can be a tool to make more efficient use of energy possible. ICT and Energy in this respect are somewhat like symbiotic twins, both need the other to thrive, especially in a perspective of increased demand for energy, depletion of fossil fuel reserves and especially climate change.

In order to meet our goals of increasing the amount of sustainable energy and increasing energy efficiency, a transformation towards smart grids, including smart meters, is essential. It makes information on energy consumption available to the user in real time, which allows him to adapt his consumption patterns. Besides this, smart grids make large scale infusion of sustainable energy from various local renewable sources into the grids possible.

This transformation will necessitate smart investments in new technologies and changes in the value chain. Investments that will likely only render a sufficient return if they are monopolized and the costs for users are increased, or when there are sufficient possibilities of value added services. Value added services in particular could open up possibilities for new services and better deals for consumers and businesses. Consider for instance how domotica-services or the uptake of electric cars can be expanded in combination with smart metering systems.

In order for a broad array of services to be offered standardization is critical. It is up to the Energy and ICT industries to come up with these standards. And soon. In March of this year the European Commission mandated CEN/CENELEC and ETSI to come up with a standard for smart meters. It goes without saying that this standard should be open, needs to be as secure as possible, and sufficiently protect the privacy of consumers. We need to hurry because quite a large number of countries are already, or will soon be, investing in smart metering systems. Open standards for other parts of the smart grids infrastructure need to follow as soon as possible, but given the early stages of development, may need some more research.

Apart from the smart grids systems, it goes (almost) without saying that the ICT industry should lead by example and continue to develop ever more energy efficient applications, hardware and software. If needed regulation could help these developments along. Regulation in fact also needs open standards, although of a different kind. Standard methods for measuring and monitoring energy efficiency are needed in order to make claims of efficiency transparent.

To stabilize and eventually reduce greenhouse gas emissions is an enormous challenge that will require many new technologies, behaviors and business practices . New standards will ensure that these technological systems work together well, and provide end-users with the information they need to make informed decisions. This short post describes a few of the environmental standards initiatives that have already begun.

Conservation is the largest single opportunity for short-run improvements in energy efficiency. In both the US and Europe, “Smart Grids” are touted as a promising conservation tool. The basic idea is to add some digital intelligence to electricity meters and household appliances, so that usage can be more easily, measured, monitored and controlled. Smart Grid technology will also allow some consumers to become energy producers, by selling the excess capacity from their own solar or wind generators back to the electrical grid. In addition to providing basic tools for inter-operability and security, Smart Grid standards must be designed for usability. Experience shows that consumers are unlikely to invest in conservation unless it is extremely easy (or prices increase substantially, bringing some of the long-run savings forward into the immediate future). Andrew Updegrove provides a nice overview of Smart Grid standardization, and the US Smart Grid standards initiative has an easily accessible home page.

Environmental labeling and certification programs are another case of standardization in support of the environment. Many consumers will pay a bit more for environmentally friendly products, but cannot distinguish among options at the point of purchase. This has given rise to a number of eco-certification programs, such as Energy Star for appliances, LEED for buildings, Forest Stewardship Council certification for paper and lumber or a host of different organic food designations. For an overview of eco-labeling, see here. In some cases, such as organic food, the number of labels has grown so quickly that it may be adding to customer confusion, leading to calls for government certified labels such as USDA organic. Assessing the costs and benefits of competing certification schemes is an interesting area for standards-related research.

Finally, since this blog is primarily devoted to ICT standards, we should consider the growing problem of electronic waste. Computers and electronics contain a variety of toxic materials (which are also sometimes quite valuable). Short product life-cycles and poor systems for reclamation cause much of this material to end up in landfills. However, there is growing pressure from groups such as the Electronics Take-back Coalition to push some of the costs and logistics of reclamation back onto electronics manufacturers. This is an area where governments are becoming involved. For example, the EU recently passed the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has endorsed a set of principles for called Responsible Recycling (R2) for accreditation of electronics recyclers. If electronics manufacturers want a voice in these regulatory efforts, they will have to begin developing and adopting new standards for Green designs and more comprehensive take-back policies to facilitate recycling and component re-use.

Governments are playing an active role in all of the standardization efforts described above. However, the most critical policies have little to with the standardization process itself. The value proposition for all of these efforts depends on raising the price of carbon to a level where the private and social costs of consumption are roughly equal. When these prices are in place – and let us hope that is soon – the remarkably diverse and adaptive international standards system will begin to deliver a variety of tools for change.

China recently circulated a draft regulation regarding the use of patents in Chinese national standards. The regulation demands that for patents to be eligible for incorporation in standards, they must be made irrevocably available royalty free
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The Internet has completed it’s 40th anniversary this fall– But how will the next 40 years look like? And by extension, which factors will influence the next 40 years of evolution of the Internet?
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Talkstandards.com had an Open Forum on eGovernment and ICT standardization yesterday. The discussion focused on eGov policies and how eGov strategies can contribute to the development and innovation of the public sector.
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What is the relationship between standards and innovation?

Last week, Mr José Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission made reference to standards as ‘enablers to bring innovation to the market’ in his keynote address at the welcome reception at the first European Innovation Summit at the European Parliament (see press release here). As per the press release: Standardization was deemed to be ‘an efficient tool to ensure the transfer of innovative products and technologies into marketable products and services.’

This visibility for standards is good news. However, the relationship between standards and innovation is not very clear and the players involved have differing motivations.
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