A little bit more about the Yello Google PowerMeter interface for Sparzähler online.  The utility has videos on its web promotion page, as well as a YouTube channel, including a video that shows the user experience on the home computer in more detail. The start page also features an advert with ...

Yet another energy awareness savvy article appears this weekend in the New York Times.  It discusses the powerful motivator of friendly competition to modify energy use behavior.  When people have a notion of normal behavior, they tend to change what they do. Robert Cialdini, a social psychologist at Arizona State University, studies ...

Houston Chronicle photos Two recent front-page articles in mainstream city newspapers covered the emergence of smart metering in Texas. I think it's a good indication that these technologies and devices are nearing the mainstream here. The Austin American-Statesman covered the installation from the perspective of utility efficiency ...

Posted by Kyra Edeker The Victoria, Australia government is running an ad pitching conservation by depicting an average household's production of greenhouse gases. Black balloons sprouting from appliances, lamps and electronics each represent 50g of greenhouse emissions. The quiet commercial feels slightly sinister, with the dark balloons sprouting out of the empty house. It's an ...

This weekend I opened my new issue of The New Yorker (now you've got me pegged) and noticed something interesting about the inside cover ad spread. The most prominent selling point in this Earth Day ad for the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid is the SUV's screen interface.  The caption reads: Visual readout of ...

Position papers for the "Pervasive Persuasive Technology and Environmental Sustainability" workshop of Pervasive 2008 will soon be posted online (The event also has a Facebook page).  Workshop organizer Marcus Foth, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation, recently announced the selections, among them: "Using persuasive technology to encourage sustainable behavior", from ...

Edenbee is a social network working to tackle climate change through better personal choices (with a little encouragement from like-minded souls). It went into an invitational beta* earlier this month. It has all of the essentials of a social network — ways to build a network with friends, ...

Tom Raftery* at lowerfootprint.com notes that soon Dopplr will be adding carbon footprinting to the service. Dopplr is a social networking site for frequent travelers, designed to aid serendipity in travel. Users can tell their friends and colleagues of travel plans, and see who's going to be at ...

Thanks to all who have written comments and sent me notes over the past couple of days. Keep ‘em coming! I hope you can hang out and contribute here from time to time. These days, it’s South By Southwest Interactive here in Austin, so this post ...