Twenty-five years ago we didn’t know that solar energy, including modular photovoltaic (PV) plants ranging in size from 1 kW to hundreds of megawatts, along with increasingly larger, electronically-aided wind generators (up to 8-MW offshore units), would become in just 25 years the cornerstones of a revolution in power production that is drastically changing the face and fate of power systems.

While societal change often takes place over extended periods of time, at key times in the history of human society, innovation can be accelerated by a combination of necessity and serendipity. We are currently experiencing such an accelerated transition.

Unmet local concerns related to renewable energy projects can result in costly project delays or cancellation. Strong political and financial incentives encourage state authorities and renewable energy developers to address issues of social acceptance.

Frugal innovations are all the rage. Their appeal stems from lower costs to society at large.

The IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology announces the selection of Jeremy Pitt, Professor of Intelligent and Self-Organizing Systems at Imperial College, London, U.K., as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, beginning January 1, 2018.

It is delightful when high profile leaders of high tech companies present the case for positive social benefit

I’m still looking for a Word file containing the 1995 family history I published. When I find this, it will…  Read More

It can be easy to explore the dark side of technology while not highlighting the benefits. But over the past…  Read More

Web artificial intelligence (AI) evolution is driven, in part, by the evolution of the web. Daniel Dennett, in his recent…  Read More

By web evolution I’m not talking Internet 4.0, I’m talking Darwinian survival. In the Darwinian model, evolution requires three things:…  Read More

Video: The Next Generation of Standards (a recorded E4C Webinar) Standards remain especially important for products that address the world’s…  Read More

Where did the privacy slippery slope begin? Or perhaps asking the question with more focus, when did we start trading…  Read More

November 2, 2017 Sydney, Australia

We may be passing a tipping point in the area of individualized marketing/advertising. This has surfaced as the U.S. Federal…  Read More

A Guest Blog Post from: Victoria A. Hailey, CMC & Katherine Bennett, (standards development leaders in IEEE). On 28 September 2017,…  Read More

Recent research indicates that pollution (air, water, …) is a major killer on a global basis. That pollution kills is…  Read More

The conversation about “Web Science” is becoming more urgent and more central to the future of the planet and the way we live a life worth living.

Periodically, often after a unconscionable massacre such as Las Vegas or Orlando, the United States reviews the balance between the…  Read More

In today’s world of climate denial and vaccine skepticism, one would be forgiven for assuming that an anti-intellectual, anti-expertise, anti-truth wave is sweeping the globe, and that the rise of the far right necessarily spells an end for science-informed policy.

NPR’s Richard Harris joins Andrew Maynard and Heather Ross to talk about his new book Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope, and Wastes Billions.