Standards

Virginia Tech, Emergency Communications, and Academic Sheep

in ,
When the Virginia Tech shootings hit the news two years ago, I was sitting in on a meeting of the committee developing standards for communication in emergencies. Interoperability is critical to innovation, and emergency scenarios make the innovation scenarios crystal clear. Unfortunately, emergencies also cause the timid to stampede, and there is no more timid class in America than the academic leadership at our colleges and universities. I began thinking of this entry during the anniversary recognitions on the UNC campus.

Every school in the country rushed to do something, anything in the aftermath. Campus police chiefs were instructed to make a decision now, without waiting to ...

Read More

Do we really need "IP Everywhere" in the smart grid?

in , , , ,
If you want to start a fight in a crowd of smart grid participants, you can begin one by announcing unambiguously how you feel about IP (Internet Protocol) everywhere. Vendors fight to gain advantage for or to forefend elimination of their product lines. Utilities become passionate to defend their AMI projects and their rate bases. Many of these conversations are premised on (to my mind) flawed thinking. Others need to define what they really want rather than relying on a simple slogan...
Read More

Schedules for Things and Markets

in , ,

Yesterday, I sat in on the final day of the Calendaring and Scheduling Consortium's semiannual conference (www.CalConnect.org). CalConnect is a consortium that promotes interoperability between dissimilar calendaring and scheduling systems. I was there to scout out their just unveiled xml serialization of ICalendar. I think we will use it a lot in buildings and on the smart grid.

Read More

The Impulse to Run Around Naked

in , , ,

We were discussing the proposed Energy Market Information Exchange (EMIE) Technical Committee last week when a participant asked "What’s wrong with having devices communicate in their own native languages and over their most optimal media?"

At its heart, this query is a request to let first costs equipment trump all other concerns. It ignores cost of ownership. It ignores the costs of security. It even ignores initial integration costs. It is a naïve plea for a simpler world.

When they were young, I remember my children regularly escaping after the evening bath and scampering through the house.

Read More