My Dumb House Costs Too Much

WHILE READING IBM'S big plans in an upcoming infrastructure boom likely to sweep the United States under President Obama, I can't help but think that I'm trapped inside a dumb house that is costing me a lot of money. I wish I could get a Greenbox but they appear to be engineered for the US power grid. IBM has co-developed smart meters that reveal electricity-use patterns. As Jeffrey O'Brien notes, "Merely showing consumers a cheaper time to do a load of laundry can reduce consumption by up to 15% and less peak demand by 10%." IBM has some big ideas in its "Smarter Planet" initiative, which focuses on inserting sensors into massive networks, such as the electricity grid, and making sense of all of it through data analytics software. According to Fortune magazine, "IBM has also adjusted its M&A strategy to follow suit. Its biggest acquisitions of late--Cognos, FileNet, and PricewaterouseCoopers--have all added to the technology giant's already formidable data acquisition, analysis, and consulting capabilities."

 

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Jeffrey M. O'Brien -- "Big Blue's Big Plan" in the Technology section of Fortune magazine, 8 December 2008.
Image from Greenbox Technologies.

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