ART AND LEISURE ARTICLE

http://www.theage.com.au/news/digital-life/smart-phone/iphone-games-put-the-heat-on-sony-nintendo/2008/11/24/1227491429903.html

CRITERIA E

Bibliography
• GCSE bitesize, 18th October 2008, http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/ict/measurecontrol/0computercontrolrev3.shtml
• ITGSQA, 9th October 2008, http://itgsqa.qataracademy.wikispaces.net/11+Ethical+Issues
• LaMonica, Martin, September 18 2008, http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10044239-54.html
• Makower, Joel, 24th October 2008 http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/003671.html
• Petterson, Gary, 24th October 2008, http://ezinearticles.com/?Are-Smart-Grids-the-Wave-of-the-Future?&id=1419720
• Shiels, Maggie, 18th September 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7622347.stm
• Smalltimes.com, 15th October 2008, http://www.smalltimes.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?ARTICLE_ID=269575&p=109
• U.S. Department of energy, 24th October 2008, http://www.oe.energy.gov/smartgrid.htm
• Wikipedia, 2008, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_grid
• Wikipedia, 2008, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_grid#Technology

CRITERIA D

Perhaps of all the issues mentioned above, the one which will impact society most is the price of the grid. As stated before, the price is higher than that of its predecessor –this could be disadvantageous not only to potential customers, but also to the business itself. Since the grid is an environment-friendly product that both businesses intend to expand the use of in the near future, it is not a luxury product and hence the target customer group is the middle class society (people with an average income). But if this price is low, the business might not benefit due to low income and the product manufacturing could be shut down completely. The price, therefore, should be at a competitive level (at least to start with) and then the tactic of promotional pricing could be used –this is when the price is slowly raised as the sales of the product increase with time. Psychological pricing is another effective method of pricing where the price of the product seems less than it actually is. (E.g.: $499, $999.99 –these prices don’t seem as high as $500 and $1000 when, in fact they are almost the same!) Google and GE should conduct market research and perhaps find out the price that most people would agree to buy the smart grid for (they could compare the price of their competitors’ and their product and evaluate the results to find out the perfect price for the grid-which would attain high sales at a reasonable price).The promotion, advertising and marketing of the grid should also be appropriate, to make the public aware of the product.

CRITERIA C

Criteria C
The main stakeholders of the grid system would perhaps be Google, GE, the potential consumers, the technicians that have worked to create it and electric companies that provide electricity to homes in the community. (http://www.oe.energy.gov/smartgrid.htm)
The introduction of the grid would affect the society to a great extent. While on one hand the introduction of several new features gives the consumer a wider choice and more desirable results, on the other hand, it perhaps widens the gap between man and machine as it is very hard to keep up with the pace of technology. This could lead to loss of trust in technology. There is also another major issue brought up here. Is this gadget as reliable as its predecessor? Will a common man who has an average knowledge of gadgetry be able to ‘communicate’ with the grid or will it just be too complicated? It can be argued that with these new features, the new grid is in fact more reliable as it gives several more options to chose from and is safer but it could also be too complex to be understood by the public. In 2003, the grid was described by some as a bit ‘too smart’ as just its automation caused several nuclear stations to shut down. (http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/003671.html) Also, the price of the grid is much higher than that of its forerunner. This not only means that the businesses are perhaps putting in too much money into this project and this money could be used for other more important issues, but the selling price might make the grid out of reach of an average person, hence bringing in the issue of equality of access. (http://ezinearticles.com/?Are-Smart-Grids-the-Wave-of-the-Future?&id=1419720)

CRITERIA B

The IT system used in the grid consists mainly of sensors and two way communication. Sensors use ‘feedback system’ to regulate the conditions in a system. There are 3 main parts to a sensor. These are: the input, the processing and the output. For instance, in temperature sensors in microwaves, temperature at which an object is to be heated is input manually by means of buttons. The processing would involve the system sensing the temperature and decreasing it if it gets higher than the input temperature and increasing it if it gets lower. The output is a beep sound or light. Such temperature sensors are used in the smart grid to monitor transmission line. Other kinds of sensors being used are: sound sensors (acoustic sensors) and sensors to measure the motion of underground cables for detect mechanical errors. (Smalltimes.com, 15th October, 2008).
The grid has improved and become more technical and is expected to continue to do so in the near future. The old grid, while being cheaper, had a few consumer choices and limited price information as to the choice of companies to buy electricity from. In contrast to this, the new grid not only has several consumer choices, it is digital and also less prone to blackouts and brownouts and has a ‘self healing’ system (this detects errors in the system using sensors and automated controls) (Wikipedia, 2008). Perhaps Google and GE are trying to improve and eventually dominate the sales of the grid so more ‘clean energy’ is used. If this does happen, it is possible that the effects of global warming could be reduced significantly. The grid is also expected to become more technical and environment friendly in the future.



This is a diagram of the feedback system involved in a water regulating system.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/ict/measurecontrol/0computercontrolrev3.shtml

Criteria A

As non-renewable sources of energy get depleted at a faster rate, the world has come to focus on the efficiency of renewable sources. ‘Clean energy’ is now the centre of attention of several major industries of the world. Two of these companies, Google and GE (General Electric) have teamed up to promote and use a ‘smart power grid’, better known as the ‘smart electric grid’ to provide safe and efficient electricity to the state of California (Shiels, Maggie, 18^th September 2008).

The Smart Grid uses modern technology more intensively than perhaps ever before. It includes advanced sensors and multiple computer technology. Another kind of knowledge being used in the new grid is the microprocessor chip (Wikipedia, 2008). In comparison to this, the old grid only transmits electricity form a power station. Despite the fact that the old grid is perhaps cheaper than the new version, it contributes to several environmental issues, a major one being the greenhouse effect.

The concern for efficiency in today’s world brings up an important question: will this system match up the requirements of an average person in society? Both companies are aiming at making this technology easily accessible to the common man-but is it advantageous to have the smart grid or will it just broaden the gap between man and machine? With more advance gadgets being created virtually every day, people have begun to find it hard to keep up with technology.

Financing this project will be much more expensive (LaMonica, Martin, September 18 2008). This is bad news not only for the business but also for their potential customers as the product itself would be quite high-priced. So is the smart grid beneficent or not?

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