when everybody else is asking for energy?

At its recent Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft announced its plan for CityNext, an initiative that will utilize its partner network, big data capabilities and Azure, its cloud-based network, to create smarter cities.

"Cities play a vital role in our lives—both now and in the future,” said Laura Ipsen, corporate vice president of Microsoft Worldwide Public Sector in a press release. “Microsoft's CityNext initiative puts people first and builds on this new era of collaborative technology to engage citizens, business and government leaders in new ways."

One Microsoft CityNext partner, Socrata Inc., a cloud software company focused on the shift to data-driven government, leverages Azure to offer governments customizable dashboards, accessible by residents through mobile or Internet to monitor and interact real-time on how their leaders are doing on education, healthcare and job creation.

"The forward-looking CityNext initiative addresses a once-in-a-generation global shift currently taking place in government: opening up government data and using it to enhance citizen services," said Kevin Merritt, CEO and founder at Socrata. "Through simple, familiar apps and devices, governments can now engage everyone, everywhere.”

Currently, Microsoft has enrolled nearly 10 international cities in the program, including: Auckland, New Zealand; Barcelona; Buenos Aires; Hainan Province and Zhengzhou, People’s Republic of China; Hamburg, Germany; Manchester, England; Moscow; and Philadelphia.

In the US, Seattle is teaming up with Microsoft to take green building to the next level. Azure will collect hundreds of data points from energy usage to weather conditions. “If you know it’s going to be an extremely hot day, for example, and the wind is blowing at night and the energy is cleaner, doesn’t it make sense to consider pre-cooling your buildings, so that you can use clean energy and you can also use less energy when everybody else is asking for energy?” chief environmental strategist Rob Bernard told KPLU.org.

“You may decide that because of the wind patterns and sun-loads that it turns out the windows on the north side of your building, from floors three to 15, are a problem. So where before you may have replaced everything and spent a lot of capital and disrupted all of your building, Home energy monitor you may be able to be much more intelligent about your renovation.”

"It's sort of like an EKG machine for the human body. You look at certain vitals," added Brian Surratt with Seattle's Office of Economic Development. The goal is to reduce energy use by 10 to 25 percent, even in buildings that are already LEED-certified for efficiency and then make that software available as broadly as possible.

City officials shut off water Tuesday to a pair of Baraboo homeowners who refused to have smart meters installed on their homes.

“The meters, No. 1, are surveillance,” said Audrey Parker of Baraboo, whose water was shut off Tuesday. “They know how many people are in your house. They know what you do throughout the day.”

Parker told members of the city’s Public Safety Committee last fall that new smart meters, installed to monitor her gas and electric usage, had caused her to have heart palpitations. She petitioned to opt out of a city program to install similar devices that would transmit electronic data about water use.

However, city officials balked at her concerns and put her on notice that her water would be shut off if she did not permit the city to install the meter. The meters send a pulse of information to the utility every few hours to report water use.

City officials say the meters require less manpower to track use, and provide other efficiencies, such as more accurate and up-to-date information.

Parker is part of a movement of people who say the meters are the government’s way of keeping tabs on people. They say the meters send out radio frequencies that add to a person’s exposure to radiation.

Baraboo Utility Superintendent Wade Peterson said those concerns are overblown. The meters use a 1-second pulse every four hours to transmit data to a city server, he said, adding that the radiation from that pulse is less than what is emitted by a microwave or cellphone.

The smart meters also typically are installed on the outside of a residence, making them even less of a concern, he said.

In response to a petition from 33 customers of the Madison Water Utility, public health officials from the city of Madison and Dane County conducted a review of literature regarding the potential health risks associated with smart meters. The review found “little evidence” to support an association.

“I’m not in a position to dispute any of that,” said James Sheriff, who also had his water turned off Tuesday. “I’m as medically qualified as a toothpick.”

Sheriff and his wife, Darcy, have aligned with their friend, Parker, to stand against the city’s new smart meter requirement. Even though he says his wife has a health issue that makes access to a running toilet and drinking water necessary, they don’t intend to budge.
Click on their website www.owon-smart.com for more information.