Orchid Project

Orchid Blog

Daily Tariff Switching

Created on 31 October 2013, 09:50, by Sarvapali Ramchurn

Households could be able to switch energy suppliers within 24 hours under proposals to be announced by Energy Secretary Ed Davey. He said it was “completely ludicrous” that switching suppliers could take more than five weeks. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24747183 Gopal

Data provenance and the first 72 hours after a disaster

Created on 29 October 2013, 17:43, by Steve Beard

Steve and I were back in Building 32 to interview Trung Dong Huynh about the relationship between disaster management and ‘data provenance’. It threw up some fascinating questions. To what extent can the news that first emerges from the ‘unknown quantity’ of a disaster be trusted? How much will it be shared? It all depends […]

Crowdsourcing meets Industries: CrowdConf 2013

Created on 22 October 2013, 15:20, by Matteo Venanzi

CrowdConf is an international event joined by top crowdsourcing practitioners, execs, investors, entrepreneurs, and scholars. Take a look at the research abstracts for an overview of the crowdsourcing research agenda. http://www.crowdconf.com/home/about/call-for-abstracts

How the 7/7 narrative stalled on the first day

Created on 22 October 2013, 13:52, by Steve Beard

After the bombs had exploded on the London Underground on the morning of 7 July 2005, there were no immediate claims of responsibility. People did not know who had set off the bombs, how they had done it or why they had done it. This mass unknowingness set off a media chain reaction. London Underground closed […]

How the 7/7 narrative changed in the first hour

Created on 20 October 2013, 20:31, by Steve Beard

How can we know what to believe about a disaster as it unfolds? It all depends upon our frame of reference. When, at 8.50 am on 7 July 2005, London Underground staff at Aldgate, Edgware Road and Russell Square stations phoned their Network Control Centre (NCC) to report bomb explosions, the NCC refused to believe […]

Crowd-sourced information and the problem of belief

Created on 18 October 2013, 13:52, by Steve Beard

The use of social media to disseminate information, unmask official cover-ups and lobby for progressive change is an indelible part of how we understand the “Arab spring”. The Tahrir Square demonstrations of 2011 were organised by Facebook invitations going viral and led to the overthrow of the tyrant Mubarak. But when does digital activism shade […]

Virilio’s logistics of perception

Created on 15 October 2013, 20:43, by Steve Beard

Who is in charge of responding to a disaster? Is it the top-down command structure with its nested hierarchies of control – strategy (eg disaster managers in a police department) , tactics (the multiple sites of damage or contamination), operations (the first responders in the field). Or is it a bottom-up network with self-organising properties? […]

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Disaster response

We are developing systems that allow first responders, unmanned ground and aerial vehicles, and software agents to work effectively together.

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Smart Grid

We are developing novel algorithms and interfaces to optimise energy consumption and coordinate consumers and producers in the smart grid.

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Citizen Science

We are developing approaches that make full use of the skills, preferences and capabilities of citizen scientists.

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