The Biggest FOSS Challenge: the Smart Grid
"...the many multi-billion dollar initiatives that the Obama Administration has launched that are heavily dependent on standards - which in many cases do not yet exist. Each initiative is also of great complexity, and will need to rely on a level of cooperation and collaboration that does not natively exist in the marketplace. "
"To close the analogy, as every home WiFi enabled network can become an intelligent node in the global telecommunications network, so can the electrical system of every home or business become an intelligent, interactive node in the national electric grid network. Much as a home or business router can tie a host of two-way services and capabilities into the telephone and cable system, so can a home or business electrical network become an interactive part of the power grid in ways that can dramatically lower costs to the user and demand on utilities, thereby helping achieve all of the environmental, social, and national benefits noted above."
Being the nervous type, the first things I think of are law enforcement horning in this system to collect data for profiling future threats and possible crimes, and marketers spam-bombing this fabulous interconnectivity. Imagine getting a multi-media sales pitch with every toilet flush. You watch, it will happen.
But that's not the point of Mr. Updegrove's articles. This is the future, like it or not, so I believe it is important for advocates of software freedom to see this as an important arena to influence, and to work to make it an open, accountable process. It's too important to leave it up to the parties who stand to profit from it to have all the decision-making power.
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Well, Carla... You have at least ONE Open Source Advocate plugging for those sorts of things. I'm sending in commentary on security concerns and proposed improvements in what they've got planned for the 1.0 version of this "framework".
Right now, NIST is more asking for comments/additional whitepapers on the proposed sets of "standards". The system they're talking about is a pale imitation of the smart grid I'd envisioned and tried to sell people in that industry on over the last 6+ years- and isn't really much of any source of privacy concern at this time. Why? Because all they're concerning themselves with is meter reading and positive improvements in the security of the SCADA already in place. There's no surveillance in the traditional sense of things in any of their thinking at this time- nor do they really have the resources in the form of bandwidth or compute power at the locations to do it. It's something that makes their lives a bit easier and something that they can point to and say, "see we did something" with regards to security. While I respect Andy, I think he makes a bigger deal of some of this than it really is on this one.