Open Knowledge and Energy Data

Description

Knowledge sharing and open data have crucial roles to play in increasing energy efficiency and developing cleaner energy sources. Information technology and the linking up of open datasets are therefore important tools in the low-carbon economy. Consequently, governments have a responsibility to provide publicly-owned data in a machine-readable format in order to enable re-use in all sectors of society, whilst businesses need to give people access to their own data so they can effectively manage their energy use. This panel will focus on the current state of open data in the energy sector, with speakers working with government, business and academia discussing the best practices, roadblocks and progress being made in this promising area.

Session Hosts

  • OKFN Open Economics @okfnecon, economics@okfn.org
  • Semantic Web Company & OKFO: Austrian Chapter OKFN
  • Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP)

Panelists

  • Denise Recheis, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership, REEEP
  • Karthikeya Acharya, Aalto University
  • Ken Dooley, Sustainability Group Manager of Granlund consulting engineers, Helsinki
  • Thomas Thurner, Semantic Web Company (SWC), Open Knowledge Forum Austria (OKFO)
  • Velichka Dimitrova, Open Knowledge Foundation, UK (moderator)
  • William Heath, MyDex.org

Summary of presentations

Karthikeya Acharya’s presentation: While the benefits in gaining open access and making energy use information live and accessible at the end user level are by now aimed to help in energy conservation, I present a supportive design intervention case where opening energy use data has lead to reflecting on ones acquired habits from a longitudinal perspective. Also when energy use and openness is considered within the context of the domestic environment there is also a need to look at the relation between energy usage and the notion of more and less private spaces of the home.

Granlund presentation: Energy consumption and thus energy benchmarking is currently measured relative to building size. The availability of personal energy consumption data will promote positive behaviour change by providing a powerful comparison of our consumption with that of our peers. Such comparisons will empower some people with the ability to prove that they are living a low energy lifestyle and will motivate others to reduce their consumption.

Mydex CIC (based in London) presentation: Energy usage data is not open data, but personal data. Hot on the heels of the open data revolution we need a complementary revolution in how we understand and manage personal data. If we get this relationship right, we may unlock something very powerful. Energy usage data and the emergence of a “personal energy profile” provides an excellent start point and example.

REEEP/reegle presentation: To get started, this presentation looks at Linked Open Data and its applications in real world examples. Then the background of Linked Open Data and controlled vocabulary is explained from a more technical perspective, followed by an overview of the clean energy portal reegle.info and how we integrated those principles. This includes reegle mash-ups and types of data used and offered, plus an outlook to new services based on (Linked) Open Energy Data. Finally we will quickly outline our ideas and challenges for the Green Hackathon.

Other Contributors

  • Martin Kaltenboeck, Managing Partner, CFO, (Linked) Open Data & Enterprise 2.0 Solutions
  • Florian Bauer, Operations and IT Director, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership, REEEP
  • Jack Townsend, Southampton University
  • James Smith, Cleanweb London

Bios

Karthikeya Acharya is pursuing his doctoral research at the Department of Design, School of Art, Design and Architecture, Aalto University. He studies material consumption in domestic environments within the context of vertical housing. His research is currently looking at constructive design research methods, like deploying prototypes in real contexts to make public the consumption of resources like electricity, water and petrol and study its implications on both residents’ behavior and on the material resources usage. He spends time between Finland and India.

Velichka Dimitrova is a project and community coordinator at the Open Knowledge Foundation, responsible for economics, energy and environment-related projects with the Open Economics Working Group (openeconomics.net), Regional Groups and OKFN Labs. She has background in economics, project management and environmental policy, researching on environmental and resource economics and land use change: @vndimitrova

Ken Dooley is the Sustainability Group Manager of Granlund consulting engineers in Helsinki. He specialises in the design of sustainable buildings, low carbon construction, linking energy consumption to people, behaviour change and smart buildings. Recently Ken has lead the smart systems design of Helsinki’s low carbon city block, Low2No, to reduce energy consumption and promote user interaction towards positive behaviour change. His current research involves corporate business models that focus on embedded sustainability.

William Heath is an entrepreneur, currently co-founder of Mydex Community Interest Company which seeks to restore control over personal data to individuals and let individuals realise the value of their personal data. He also cofounded Kable Ltd and Ctrl-Shift Ltd, chaired Open Rights Group and is a Fellow of the Young Foundation. As a sideline he writes speeches for Sir Bonar Neville-Kingdom, a senior British civil servant viscerally opposed to all forms of openness. William lives with family in Bath, England where he is restoring a farm and learning baritone saxophone.

Denise Recheis is an engineer with a focus on sustainable systems and renewable energy. She currently works in Knowledge Management for the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership in Vienna. REEEP is a global public-private partnership creating the right market conditions for clean energy in developing countries. Her primary area of work is the organization’s Linked Open Data portal reegle.info. Her background in renewable energy technology as well as her commitment to increase the share of clean energy solutions has been useful in shaping her current work. Denise sees great potential in (Linked) Open Energy Data as an accelerator for low-carbon development.

James Smith runs Cleanweb UK, an organisation promoting cleanweb activities in the UK. He has been building cleanweb projects since 2007, starting with The Carbon Diet and Green Thing. He worked as a lead developer and platform evangelist at AMEE, along the way building the world’s first natural language carbon calculator, AskAMEE. He is currently running Therm, the first specialist cleanweb consultancy. You can find him as @floppy on Twitter, or visit his personal blog at floppy.org.uk.

Thomas Thurner started his career at Schlumberger Industries’ R&D-Department as an developing engineer for energy consumption meters. Thomas became a radiopirat in the early 1990s and was thereafter one of the founding fathers of Viennas first community radio. In 2002 Thomas and his colleagues launched the SpinOut-Company “Team Teichenberg” active in the fields of audio exchange, streaming, eLearning and podcasting. In 2006 he was in charge of a two years project on setting up an innovation hub on behalf of Telekom Austria. Beginning in 2008 Thomas is coordinating Semantic Web Company’s Transfer Division as well as public relations and campaigns. Thomas is also engaged with Semantic Web Company’s Open-Data-Strategy-Branch, where he is active in community building, and consulting for an growing Linked Open Government Data scene for Austria.

Jack Townsend is researching the role of openness and the Web in tackling global challenges and advancing sustainable development for all. This question has taken him from the energy sector, where he managed innovation with web applications and big data, to the Web and Internet Science group at the University of Southampton, UK. Jack recently created Globe-Town.org, a winner of the World Bank #Apps4Climate competition, which conveys the risks, responsibilities and opportunities of climate change using open data. Find him at @JackTownsend_

Details

Location: Aalto PRO

Date & Time: Tue 18, 11:30 - 13:00

Target Group: Anyone interested in the topic

Topic Stream: Open knowledge and Sustainability

Session Etherpad page: link