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IBM’s Jim Spohrer on the Smarter Planet University Jam

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IBM held their inaugural Smarter Planet University Jam earlier this year. The Jam was a crowdsourcing process held by IBM earlier this year where nearly 2,000 students from more than 200 universities from 40 countries around the world took part with the aim of building a Smarter Planet through technology.

Some of the findings from the Jam were:

  • Eight of 10 students want universities to revamp traditional learning environment
  • Over 90% want to join or start a Green Advocacy group at their campus
  • 64% of students believe that the world has a chance to reverse carbon emissions by 2025 and
  • 60% believe that education and efficient transportation offer the best hope for sustainability of our cities

I had the chance to talk to Jim Spohrer, the Director of IBM’s Global University Programs (GUP) recently about the Jam. We discussed the thinking behind it, the outcomes what were its take-aways.

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IBM’s Drew Clark on electricity, water and trends in sustainability

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I had the good fortune to have a chat with IBM Director of Strategy Drew Clark recently. We had a great talk covering how to get noticed by the IBM Venture Capital group, water and energy projects and trends in sustainability globally.

We even speculated on the likelihood of demand response systems being rolled out for water management.

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Mobile phones – distributed air quality sensor network?

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Since giving my talk on sustainability in the mobile phone sector at Mobile 2.0 in Barcelona a few weeks back and writing my post about how Augmented Reality on mobiles could be transformative for Green tech I have been thinking a lot about how mobiles could make a significant positive contribution to the planet.

The context behind this is that while there are 1 billion PCs in the world and 1.4 billion internet users, there are 4 billion mobile phone subscriptions and climbing. One possibility I posited at Mobile 2.0 was that mobiles could become clients for grid computing projects like IBM’s World Community Grid. This would add significantly to the compute power of the grid (but for now battery life considerations probably means this is still a few years out).

The other thought rattling around in my head was probably sparked off by my discussions with IBM execs around their Smarter Planet initiative. It occurs to me that if mobile phones had built-in air quality monitors, you could very quickly build up a real-time map of pollution hotspots. Current municipal pollution monitors are static and far too few in number to give a meaningful picture of air quality but if mobile phones had this capability, the combining of the air quality information with the GPS data from the phone would allow for pinpointing of pollution trouble spots very quickly.

Obviously for this to be effective, the data would need to be anonymized and uploaded to a central server. Also, the pollution information would need to be made freely available for everyone’s consumption. There may even be a business model there for someone to pay mobile phone users to sample air and upload the information.

A quick bit of research around this thought and I found the video above showing that not alone is it feasible but it wasn’t a hugely original idea on my part 😉

With the recent news of urban pollution being responsible for lower IQ in children and being implicated in premature births of infants and preeclampsia, there is a definite health imperative for something like this. Especially in China, where air pollution is causing massive health problems. Imagine if the Chinese authorities mandated this the way they mandated that all mobile phone chargers use usb back in 2006! Very quickly economies of scale would drive costs down and competition amongst manufacturers would mean smaller chipsets to do this.

Original Rockwell GPS receiver - image from ion.org

Original Rockwell GPS receiver - image from ion.org

For anyone who thinks that air quality monitors would be too bulky for mobile phones, just have a look at what the original GPS receivers looked like (large backpacks) and now they are embedded in most smart phones!

One final thought harking back to my post on Augmented Reality, with air quality data from mobile phones uploaded to the cloud (unintentional pun, sorry!) it would be very straightforward to create an Augmented Reality view of air quality allowing mobile phone owners to ‘see’ pollution in their immediate environment – imagine how quickly that would drive home to people the seriousness of their air quality situation.

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Rich Lechner on Smart Transport June 09

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I talked to Rich Lechner, IBM’s VP of Energy and Environment, the other day about the global problem of getting transportation right. According to Rich, in the US alone, congested roadways cost about $78bn per year so this is very much an economic as well as a sustainability-related issue!

We had a wide-ranging conversation about all kinds of solutions, including using demand response to manage traffic flows!

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June 1st GreenMonk Energy and Sustainability show

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Had a great show today with plenty of links and feedback from viewers – here is the transcript from the show.

03:31 Tom Raftery: Can anyone see/hear me?
03:31 cgarvey: A/V all good
03:31 mikethebee: Vid and auio ok
03:32 mikethebee: my typing rubbish
03:33 Tom Raftery: http://environment.uk.msn.com/news/headlines/article.aspx?cp-documentid=147696467
03:35 Tom Raftery: http://planetark.org/ark/53151
03:37 Tom Raftery: http://www.coolerado.com/news/
03:38 Tom Raftery: http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/05/26/oil-giant-shell-on-trial-for-nigerian-environmentalist-saro-wiwas-execution/
03:39 Tom Raftery: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Saro_Wiwa
03:40 Tom Raftery: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1189929/The-return-flight-bumblebee-creates-buzz.html
03:42 Tom Raftery: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/27622.wss
03:44 Tom Raftery: http://www.apesphere.com/blog/29/2009/05/30/Has_CSR_become_a_code_word_for_profit_trumps_ethics
03:46 Tom Raftery: http://www.newenergyworldnetwork.com/renewable-energy-news/by_technology/energy_efficiency/energy-technologies-institute-develops-uk-energy-system-blueprints-for-2050.html?utm
03:48 Tom Raftery: http://community.nortel.com/go/blogs/greenroots/2009/05/28/guest-post-energy-star-standard-released-for-computer-servers
03:49 Al: Bit of a joke though
03:49 Tom Raftery: http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/coming-soon-a-new-eco-label-for-tvs/
03:51 Al: Energy star rating
03:51 Al: For servers
03:52 Al: The power we consume on our servers is less than the tolerance on their specs
03:52 Tom Raftery: http://www.clearstandards.com/carbontracker.html
03:53 Al: Except in this case our servers would not be
03:54 Al: compliant that is
03:54 Al: They should ahve been much more agressive
03:54 Al: Just like carbon targets
03:55 dahowlett: aaah…stream here as well
03:55 Tom Raftery: http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/ariel-schwartz/sustainability/volvo-employees-green-their-commutes-cell-phone-application
03:56 dahowlett: I was over the other place
03:56 dahowlett: yes – I was over on the Ustream thingy
03:56 Tom Raftery: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/real_time_noise_and_air_quality_monitoring_over_mobile_internet.php
03:59 Tom Raftery: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/05/28/cnnheroes.suzan.lakhan.baptiste/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
04:01 Tom Raftery: http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/eco-tech-scientists-to-recreate-stars-on-earth-for-limitless-energy
04:04 Al: Its the carbon police
04:04 Al: Their coming to get you
04:04 mikethebee: Gr8 feature on BBC R4 Farming today about Thanet Earth. First time I had heard of it. http://www.thanetearth.com/
04:04 dahowlett: the fire is under your desk
04:05 dahowlett: in themeantime…it’s time to go sunbathing
04:05 cgarvey: All good Tom, thanks again for the informative show!
04:05 dahowlett: nice one Tom
04:05 Al: Thanks Tom
04:05 Tom Raftery: Thanks everyone for joining in and contributions
04:05 Tom Raftery: Great show see you all here next week!
04:05 mikethebee: well done again
04:06 Al: Maybe using Google’s wave would be a nice addition
04:06 Tom Raftery: I’d love a Google Wave account
04:06 Tom Raftery: There is only a v limited release of accounts afaik yet
04:07 Al: Maybe you have to attend a European Google I/O
04:07 Tom Raftery: Probably – and can’t make a case for going to it 🙁
04:08 Al: Cheers Tom l8r

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Rich Lechner’s May update

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Rich Lechner is IBM’s Vice President of Energy and Environment. I met him at an IBM event and asked if he would agree to do a monthly video update on Energy and Environmental matters. He graciously agreed and this is the 3rd installment.

In this episode Rich discusses bringing all an organisation’s energy information together – and the implications for organisational structure that will ensue.

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IBM has signed a new services agreement …

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IBM has signed a new services agreement with Germany’s Federal Employment Agency, Bundesagentur fur Arbeit (BA) to help the agency file, distribute, process and manage documents electronically.

Given how much energy and water goes into paper production and transportation, this move to e-government has got to be a big win for the planet!

See http://bit.ly/168oFS for more

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April 13th GreenMonk Energy and Sustainability show

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Here is a recording of today’s GreenMonk Energy and Sustainability show complete with the chatstream below:

04:31 TomRaftery : About to kick off
04:32 TomRaftery : Can you see & hear me ok?
04:33 TomRaftery : Hello?
04:33 ustreamer-36203 : Hi Tom
04:33 ustreamer-36203 : Andrew Newton of APEsphere here
04:34 ustreamer-36203 : yep, all good
04:35 ustreamer-39040 : I can see and hear ya. Just have to log in – This is Suki
04:37 TomRaftery : http://www.theenergycollective.com/TheEnergyCollective/37826
04:37 ustreamer-13870 : Den here..
04:37 ustreamer-13870 : Ola todos
04:39 TomRaftery : http://www.zigbee.org/en/newsletters/2009_04_Newsletter/0409-External.asp#success1
04:40 TomRaftery : http://www.techflash.com/microsoft/Microsoft_aims_for_dramatic_drop_in_its_data-center_energy_usage_42817632.html
04:43 ustreamer-13870 : Wonder if SAP will try doing the same thing as MSFT?
04:44 TomRaftery : http://blogs.zdnet.com/sustainability/?p=307
04:44 Suki_Fuller : I’ve gotten sucked into the Zigbee newsletter – liking this thing
04:46 ustreamer-13870 : RyanAir are the world’s worst airline IMO
04:47 Suki_Fuller : Nah – Delta
04:47 ustreamer-13870 : It’s a flying shopping mall
04:47 TomRaftery : http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/27174.wss
04:48 ustreamer-13870 : I will do almost anything to avoid flying RyanAir (anyhooo – good for them in dropping prices)
04:50 TomRaftery : http://www.communities.hp.com/online/blogs/csremea/archive/2009/04/09/new-global-citizenship-report-now-available.aspx
04:51 TomRaftery : http://redmonk.dekiondemand.com/CSR_Reporting
04:55 Suki_Fuller : They seem to be going backwards in all regards apparently
04:55 ustreamer-36203 : Another Amazon CSR blinder from today: http://www.apesphere.com/story/989/2009/04/13/Is_there_an_anti-gay_glitch_in_the_Amazon_rankings
04:55 TomRaftery : http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/03/11/powernap-targets-server-idle-time/
04:55 Suki_Fuller : That better be tap water
04:57 TomRaftery : http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/98163
04:57 TomRaftery : http://blogs.infor.com/insights/2009/04/us-government-focuses-on-energy-efficiency-of-facilities.html
04:59 TomRaftery : http://greenlight.greentechmedia.com/2009/04/07/energyhub-lands-series-a-for-home-energy-dashboard-1344/
05:05 TomRaftery : http://www.energyhub.net/
05:07 TomRaftery : Anyone anything else to talk about?
05:07 Suki_Fuller : Us UK people over here had to get up.
05:07 Suki_Fuller : In US
05:07 Suki_Fuller : UK people in US
05:08 Suki_Fuller : Thank you Tom as always learned much
05:08 TomRaftery : Over and out – thanks everyone for a great show
05:09 TomRaftery : Thank you Suki

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Get Rich Quick: a green roundup from IBM’s VP Energy and Utility – Show 1: Water

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Rich Lechner is IBM’s VP Energy and Environment.

I first met Rich at the Pulse 09 event in Las Vegas earlier this year where he gave a great talk on Sustainability & the role of IT.

Rich has agreed to come on the GreenMonk show monthly to give us a state of the ‘sustainosphere’ from an IBM perspective!

This is month one and we are talking Water – among the many interesting water-related items, watch out near the end for Rich’s alluding to using Demand Response for water flow management!