The web as a low carbon technology

Through the research proposals I have been working on in the past couple of months I have picked up on an area of emerging interest within the energy demand informatics space.  This area is the potential of social network (e.g. Facebook and Twitter), and other Internet (e.g. Internet of Things), technologies to promote and catalyse the behaviour change required to radically reduce energy demand. I believe there are some really interesting research questions to address, and some great opportunities for creative thinking interdisciplinary thinking at this energy demand – social computing – web interface. A favour of the questions that occurred to me listed below.

·      can sharing personal energy consumption information (e.g. captured by Smart Meters) using social networks create a sense of competition that would encourage individuals to change behaviours and reduce energy consumption?

·      can information on energy consumption displayed on, and personalised prompts delivered to, mobile devices encourage individuals to change their energy consumption (at home and work, and in transit)?

·      how can web technologies support community based renewable and energy efficiency initiatives (such as http://www.energy4all.co.uk)?

So I can begin to explore these questions, and questions that I hope will emerge as my thinking/understanding evolves, I am offering a mini-project to 2012 intake for the Doctoral Training Centre in Low Carbon Technologies (at the University of Leeds).  This mini-project will offer a group of first year students, studying an integrated MSc-PhD course, the opportunity to explore the area over the course of a semester. I envision group will identify and pursue lines of enquiry such those outlined below (although the students may have much stronger ideas of course!).

·      Designing a mobile or web application to reduce energy demand – including producing a paper mock-up/prototype and seeking feedback on this (e.g. from the rest of their cohort).

·      Reviewing scenarios for a sustainable energy system (e.g. from DECC), and identifying where social networks and Internet technologies could play a role in radically reducing energy demand;

·      Exploring how social media, and other Internet, technologies are currently used in an energy related context - for example, analysing the online discourse on low carbon technologies on Twitter, to identify key actors, topics and sentiments within the discourse;

·      Articulating the extent to which current use of these technologies suggests they have a significant role to play in reducing energy demand over the period to 2050.