Pachube is now Cosm!

Today is a significant one in our history, because today is the day that Pachube grows up. You might have noticed already: Pachube is now Cosm!

We haven't exactly been silent over the last few months since being acquired by LogMeIn but we also haven't spoken much about the biggest task that's been occupying us almost round the clock: building out and relaunching the service under a new (pronounceable! spellable!! memorable!!!) name, with a completely new (cleaner! easier!! functional!!!) design, that brings with it a whole host of features and attributes that help you build Internet of Things products, applications and services more quickly, scalably and collaboratively. Pachube.com has evolved into Cosm.com. And we mean business.

Surely there's a smarter approach to smart cities?

Photo by cesarastudillo

This is a reprint of an article I recently wrote for Wired, Surely there's a smarter approach to smart cities?:

For almost a decade, corporate giants like IBM and Cisco have been banging the smart city drum and, frankly, the beat is getting a little boring. We've long been promised great things: more energy efficient power grids, an end to traffic jams and even rubbish bins that let you know when they're full.

The truth is, all of these "smart city" initiatives actually only reflect the most basic functionalities of the Internet of Things (IoT). The true potential for smart cities is so much greater, so much more interesting, and so much more important.

#Sensemakers: Hacking Water

Just a few weeks ago we completed a weekend Water Hackathon in NYC as part of the Sensemakers community, where about 40 makers, students, and activists came together to tackle issues around the pollution of NYC's waterways.  It's a huge, sprawling set of problems; one that can't possibly be understood fully in only a weekend.  Luckily, we have connections with some fantastic groups of people, like PublicLaboratory, with insight into specific problems we knew we wanted to take a stab at.  Further, as the event formed and the word got out, like-minded people in the area joined, adding further expertise and perspective. It really was awesome to watch come together.

#AirQualityEgg: Why sensor calibration and precision is the wrong conversation

I receive criticism daily about design decisions that have been made around the #AirQualityEgg sensors and how we are going about deploying the hardware uncalibrated.  As the project builds an ever larger following and becomes more successful, the opposition becomes ever louder and ... vexed.  I sent this update out just now to the backers of the Kickstarter so that our position is clear.  I think the wider Pachube community can relate to the spirit of this, so I'm including it here as well.

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Regarding the calibration and precision of the sensors we are using, this is the hot-button question that will continue to crop up.  Before I answer it again, I want to reiterate that the PRIMARY purpose of this project is accessibility.  Everything is based on open source designs and we are choosing the sensor components based on affordability and availability.  (However, now that the Egg is being designed to be modular, any sensor can be incorporated.  But that's not the point.)

#Sensemakers: Citizens are more than just a free labor pool

For the past 6 months or so, I've been participating in the gradual formation of communities in the US and Europe around the "Internet of Things".  Two communities that I've been working with in particular, those in NYC and Amsterdam, have shown an affinity for taking action and applying technology to urban/social issues that are affecting them. Their enthusiasm and energy has been absolutely infectious.

I just sent the following announcement out to those communities:

#AirQualityEgg Update: Funded on Kickstarter! Videos! Press!

The #AirQualityEgg is a community-led air quality sensing network that gives people a way to participate in the conversation about air quality.  You can read previous posts about this project here and here and join the conversation here.

We finally went live on Kickstarter!  You can now directly support this project and actually buy an AirQualityEgg! Getting our story together, getting our video screened/cut/graphics/blah, getting all of our pricing figured out... it was a huge undertaking.  Massive props to Joe Saavedra who has stepped up over and over and really made this thing come together.  Also, Albert Chao, Senem Cinar, Eulani Labay, Mani Nilchiani, and Dirk Swart were all caught up in the pre-Kickstarter whirlwind.  It absolutely takes a killer community to pull this off. 

Then, we reached our $39K funding goal in 4 days! WHAT? 

January Internet of Things Meetups [videos]

We have been meeting consistently each month at Meetups in London, NYC, and Amsterdam with like minded enthusiasts to riff together on "Internet of Things topics".  If you are in or around any of these cities, you should come and join us!  This month we heard from all kinds of different projects, some of which you can see in the videos below the break, including:

• Britta Riley from Windowfarms
• Liz Barry from PublicLab
• Vincent Schipper and Alexander Zeh from NetworkLab 
• Amran Anjum and Arnd Marijnissen from the Amsterdam Hackspace
• Stefano Ingarro who came all the way from Turin to talk about EveryAware
• Gonzalo Garcia-Perate from Hintsights
• Haiyan Zhang from Ideo talking about geigermaps
• Ben Redford talking about Olly the smelly robot
• Ben Pirt from Pachube

A new group is starting this month in Barcelona!  Check it out.