Tag: Pachube

Categories
Business Strategy Internet of Things Social and Societal

Shaspa-Shared Spaces

Oliver Goh of Shaspa Research said in an interview with Into Tomorrow during CES2010 that "smart technologies" should solve real world problems we experience. That oversimplifies the situation a bit, I think. The types of problems we as individuals want technology to solve will be different based on our circumstances (age, home vs business, country of residence, culture, etc) and the challenges facing businesses also vary widely depending on the domain, currency fluctuations and so forth.

So how could one device detect any circumstance and be ready to respond? Good question! One which I hope to be able to ask about the Shaspa Bridge.

According the Shaspa web site where I found this diagram, their technology connects sensors, gathers data and supports software for decision making and management of resources. Their applications are focusing on shared living and working spaces–hence the name "Sha" for Shared and "Spa" for Spaces.

Sounds remarkably reminiscent of the applications built on the Pachube platform using sensors in the environment or on a smart phone to inform decision making.  But the companies with which Shaspa seeks to do business are quite different and, although there is reference on the site to open and interoperable solutions based on standards, the concepts of Open Source and building communities of users and developers are noticeably absent from their positioning.

Shaspa has some points in common with WideTag in that there is a social media component to the platform. And, similarly to WideTag over the past year, Shaspa does not appear (based on its web site "news" section) to be making much noise. The most recent posting on SlideShare is already over 24 months old. The company could be conserving resources for when there are greater opportunities for businesses serving the developers of solutions based on the Internet of Things, or busy actually doing projects which are too sensitive to make public.

Could Shaspa be one of the companies which will get a positive boost from the recent acquisition of Pachube?
 

Categories
Business Strategy Internet of Things

WideTag too?

With the dust settling around the Pachube acquisition, it's important to consider other companies that might be out there in the same category and impacted by the change in the landscape. One of these companies is WideTag. Although it is technically based in Redwood City, California, the company was founded by three Italians and I believe that the "heart" of the project was in Northern Italy.

WideTag's angle on the sensor data aggregation problem was to provide a software platform that has a social media component. Aside from the emphasis on social media, WideTag and Pachube are very similar. Compare with the Pachube mission, this text:

"The WideSpime framework for massive data collection applications allows for the rapid development of highly scalable, and robust vertical applications in the areas of energy, environment, industrial monitoring, and others.

The OpenSpime development libraries have been put in open-source in order to spur the growth of a healthy community sharing the spime-based vision of the forthcoming Internet Of Things. In addition to this, Roberto Ostinelli, WideTag’s CTO, released in open-source Misultin >-|-|-|<>, a high-performance http server."

The major differences between Pachube and WideTag today are that WideTag is no longer an active business, while Pachube has a major sponsor and deep pockets from which to draw.

It was clear from the declining level of newsworthy activity and developments throughout 2010 that the company was not growing. In March 2011, a post by WideTag CEO, Leandro Agrò, on the site announced that the three co-founders had gone their separate ways but were thankful for the opportunity they had to work in the exciting field of the Internet of Things. What was the difference? Was it a resource limitation?

So now, with the Pachube property valuation in mind, is there an opportunity to pour a little cash in and revive WideTag? Is there a WideTag Phase 2? Or is there a fresh, new company, like Open Sen.se, coming in to fill the void?

Categories
Internet of Things News

Pachube Acquired by LogMeIn

The news broke earlier today that Wobrun, Mass-based LogMeIn, a provider of software to remotely access computers and mobile devices, acquired Connected Environments, the provider of Pachube for approximately $15M cash. In its press release, and the investor relations conference call that followed, LogMeIn said that it intends to leverage the acquisition to expand its Gravity platform while leaving the existing team in place. Usman Hague, the founder of Connected Environments and the individual most closely identified with the company's vision, wrote a sincere post about his hope for the future on his blog.

Pachube (pronounced Patch Bay) has been around for nearly 4 years (the service was launched in 2008) and has had a tremendous impact on the development of concrete Internet of Things projects.  I hope that this continues and, with the resources of the parent company, expands in the future.

A few words from the LogMeIn press release:

"The Pachube Service and User Community

Pachube is an Internet of Things pioneer.  Their service offers real-time monitoring and management of any type of connected device. Pachube makes it easy for people to connect their devices and sensors to its service, to publish data, and to receive data and instructions from other devices. The Pachube service also collects and stores the published datastreams for further analysis and visualization. Using the Pachube service, individuals, developers and businesses can create applications, services and products that leverage the data created by these connected devices. In doing so, Pachube empowers people to share, collaborate and make use of the information generated by the world around them.  Currently, Pachube users send more than seven million datapoints to the service each day."

The Pachube community is, in my mind, the most valuable asset of the company which cannot quickly be rebuilt. I wonder if LogMeIn will be able to nurture and to grow the community which is composed largely of people who are very firmly devoted to open source.

What do you think?

Categories
Internet of Things Policy, Legal, Regulatory Social and Societal

Smart Cities and Big Citizens

The AR-4-Basel project is a framework by which public data about a city, the city of Basel more specifically, can be put in the hands of Augmented Reality developers using a variety of tools and platforms and to encourage the development community to be creative. Many scenarios for AR in urban environments are for consumers. The end goal being that if we knew more about our immediate environments, we might make different decisions.

The departments of the city of Basel with whom I'm in communications are primarily thinking of the Internet of Things, and AR in particular, as a professional tool, enabling people to do their job more efficiently when in the field, perhaps to save on resources/reduce waste (increase efficiency) and to make better decisions which might impact their lives or those of others.

So, in the context of this project, I'm spending a lot of time speaking with experts and reading the opinions of those much more informed in these matters of "smart cities" than I. Martijn de Waal is one of those that has invested highly of himself in this topic and clearly "gets it."

One of the posts that I found particularly enlightening is a "dialog" of sorts between Ed Borden of Pachube and Adam Greenfield of Urbanscale. Rather than read my paraphrasing, please read it.

At this point, the jury is out on if these are really different positions and if different, which of these positions best characterizes the situation. It is early enough that cities (BigGov) and their managers (politicians) could "wake up" and take a more active role in their own technology use. But not all citizens want or should be participating in the decisions that require having all (and some of it sensitive) data. And, it is definitely true that citizens can and should be involved in some of these services which primarily benefit them.

I look forward to seeing this dialog continue and to learning more from the experts in this field. Maybe as a small citizen of a small urban area in a small country, I will be able to make a difference in how others live.