Individual talks and strategic sessions with the key players in the lighting industry has led to the conclusion that the timing for the upcoming Light Middle East edition, which was to be held at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Centre from September 27-29, 2009, would instead be preferred in autumn 2010. Exact dates will follow.
The free social messaging tool, Twitter, now enables San Francisco residents to reach the government customer service centre. According to San Francisco’s Chief Information Officer, Chris Vein, the city is the first city in the world to use Twitter on such a large scale to communicate with its residents.
Other than contacting the centre through traditional media such as phone or the centre’s website, citizens can now send a request on Twitter via SMS, IM or the Twitter website. Requests include streetlight repair among several others. It is possible for the residents to attach photos or links in their tweets allowing the centre to easier identify the location or problem being reported.
Other organisations are also beginning to use the same technology. Kissimmee Utility Authority now relies on its customers to help identify street lights that are malfunctioning or in need of repair. With more than 15,000 street lights to maintain, the utility benefits from outage reports sent using the micro-blogging service Twitter. The utility asks that the tweet includes light pole number, the nearest address or major cross, a contact phone number and the phrase #kuaalerts.
Founded in 1901, KUA (www.kua.com) is Florida’s sixth largest community-owned utility providing electric and telecommunication services to 62,000 customers in Osceola County, Florida.
Gloucestershire County has set a fine example by the ‘invest to save’ scheme, where the county’s street lights are dimmed or switched off for part of the night. The scheme is held up as an example of how UK councils can reduce their carbon footprint.
The county estimates it will obtain annual savings of about £210,000 and cut CO2 emissions by 28 percent by dimming and switching off its street lights. Many of the high wattage street lights are dimmed between midnight and 5:30 a.m., and in the rural areas and market towns some of the street lights are turned off during the same period.
Gloucestershire County Council is already generating savings, and when the project of converting the rest of the county’s street lights is completed, it will reduce carbon emissions by 400 tonnes - the equivalent of boiling 26 million kettles.