Posts Tagged ‘standardization’

Standards for Standards: Is the Best Way to Predict the Future to Standardize It?

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

The title of this blog is a play on the famous words by the pioneering computer scientist Alan Kay who said that: “The best way to predict the future is to invent it”. In contrast, the ‘Standards for standards’ approach seems to take the view that: The best way to predict the future is to standardize it. In other words, it seems to predict future directions for innovation and preemptively create a standards template for future innovation.

This approach will not work for a number of reasons, but in this post I will focus on two specific issues:
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The BSI PAS 98 Code of Practice for Consortia

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

The British Standards Institution (BSI) announced in a 2009 press release in a that work had begun to formulate the PAS 98 “Code of practice for the establishment and management of Consortia”, a good practice guide. The code is to be internationally applicable and provide support for consortia in e.g. standards development and interoperability.
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The Smart Grid Last Mile(s) – Part 3

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

In the previous section of the blog (read Part 1 HERE, Part 2 HERE), we saw the multiple standards bodies that operate at the interface of the Smart meter (AMI) and the Home area network (HAN). In this concluding section, we shall see the role of the customer.

The consumer and the interface to the consumer is a key part of the HAN and AMI systems. The consumer consumes electricity, natural gas, water or other utility and consequently has the greatest potential to conserve and manage the consumption of those utilities
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The Smart Grid Last Mile(s) – Part 1

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

Abstract: This is a multi part blog about Smart Grid standardization. It outlines the complexities and the standards at the ‘last mile’ of the Smart Grid i.e. between the Smart meter and the home area network. This is the key interface from the customer standpoint.
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Can Web 2.0 Trump eHealth Interoperability Issues?

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

One of the barriers to the adoption of eHealth is the adoption of standards. And there are in turn unending barriers to the adoption of standards: legal, cultural, administrative, financial, organizational, and of course technical constraints not to omit the lack of incentives. Hence an interesting Norwegian paper by Riita Hellmann which speaks of “ubiquitous heterogeneity.”
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Will e-health Take Off In Emerging Markets and If So, What Are the Implications?

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

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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We Are Spirits in a (Green) Material World

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

800px-Measuring_Tape_Inch+CM-The divergence between material standards and the ethereal world of ICT

We have standards for nearly everything in this green world of ours. There are Green Building Standards (LEED, Green Globes, BREEM, Energy Star, NAHB Green and ASHRAE 189 to name a few)
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The CO2 Cutting Potential of ICT

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

300px-Puzzle-Gold-glossy.svgAt a time when Climate Control initiatives are getting embroiled in quotas and targets, it is remarkable that the ICT industry has stepped up to the challenge and begun to deliver genuine solutions that reduce CO2 emissions.
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ICT Standardization for Optimal Energy Use

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

Courtesy of Vinny BurgooThroughout 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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Peer to Peer Production of Energy and the Role of Standards

Thursday, December 17th, 2009
G B Shaw said: The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
Much of the discussion around Smart Grids is ‘reasonable’. It is mostly oriented towards the existing infrastructure, with the assumption that the existing infrastructure will also have an important role to play in future.
This is a ‘reasonable’ perspective, but what if we were to be ‘unreasonable’? And therefore progressive and also disruptive in the words of GB Shaw?
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