NYC Cleanweb Hackathon: Crowdsourcing Killer Energy Apps
January 24th 2012
The Internet is no longer just traditional web applications and storefronts. Increasingly, smart things, like appliances, electric vehicle chargers, solar panels, and other in-home devices are becoming networked and connected to the Internet. This ‘Internet of Things’ is a significant departure from the current generation of Web apps and is fundamental to enabling the cleanweb.
This departure has in part been wrought by the emergence of hackathons. Hackathons are the democratization of Internet technology—a chance for anyone with a great idea and the skill to execute it, to make fundamental changes in the way the people interact with energy. In fact, as a company, we have long maintained that it’s important to remain humble about predicting the killer app, and rather than trying to predict the killer app we need to create the conditions for the creation of the killer app. As part of that belief, we opened our APIs in an effort to leverage the collective creativity of the open developer community and maximize the potential for the creation of killer energy apps. This potential was never more obvious than at the NYC Cleanweb Hackathon this past weekend!
Friday night was the perfect kickoff for the NYC Cleanweb Hackathon. The view was stunning from the 40th floor of the New York Academy of Sciences. The music made everyone want to dance and the high energy at the beginning of the hackathon was palpable. It was very exciting to talk with people who either had ideas that could change our way of managing resources on this planet or who are already doing innovative work to nudge us toward sustainability.
Introductions were made, judges and organizing sponsors were acknowledged, APIs and datasets were presented, and then came the best part – the sharing of ideas for apps to be built over the course of the weekend. Idea after idea for energy awareness, energy efficiency, energy education, solar, transportation and social equity were presented. Groups began forming and discussing their project’s architecture and workflow. The race was on.
Saturday was freezing cold with high wind and wet snow blanketing the streets as we made our way to New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Interactive Telecommunications Program. Attendees checked in, grabbed coffee and bagels, and staked out the tables where they would work for the weekend. Computers quickly covered the tables and tangles of power cords appeared. Coffee cups began to pile up as teams figured how to make maximum use of the next 30 hours.
The Tendril team got to work answering questions about our APIs, sample user profiles, and home area network devices. We watched as app keys were assigned and API calls began flooding through our developer site at dev.tendrilinc.com. First user information trended up, then devices, and then Green Button API calls took and held the lead. Teams continued working into the night as they hit their stride and apps began to take shape.
The following morning was mostly cloudy and very cold but it was no longer snowing. Project teams returned to work and were highly focused as the hours flew by.
Rewards earned in eMotivator app
In all, a total of 15 apps were created this weekend, countless cups of coffee were consumed, and many hours of sleep were missed. But it was all for an excellent cause – combining Internet technologies with innovative solutions for sustainability.
The brilliance of a cleanweb hackathon is evident in the list of apps created this past weekend:
1. eMotivator – a portal where individuals are rewarded for reducing their electricity consumption
2. Green Carrot – Inform consumers of their energy usage; compare usage and share insights with friends on Facebook
3. Movable Feast – sends real-time energy alerts to your inbox when energy usage is unusually high
4. CleanGPA – Computes normalized residential energy consumption; users compete with friends, family, and community and win titles and badges
5. Econofy E-Star – Energy efficiency comparison shopping for appliances and more
6. NYC Municipal Buildings Faceoff – Ranks NYC municipal buildings by energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions
7. Audit Trigger – Calculates which properties will benefit from an energy audit
8. Watt Quiz – Answer questions correctly and generate watts that are donated to charities
9. Automagic Wireless Thermostat – Puts thermostat in away mode based on location of residents’ smart phones
10. Watt – Summarized energy consumption into a Watt score. Get a better score by influencing others to decrease their energy usage.
11. 1>99 – Visualizes the gap in social equity
12. Mosaic map – Connects users with the solar projects that they’ve funded and presents real-time activity in the solar sphere
13. Solar List – Educates consumers about solar and helps them find installers
14. Trip Watchers – Tracks vehicle miles traveled and provides suggestions for reducing impact
15. Auto Power Saver – a screen saver for your home power usage based on the geolocation of your phone compared to your house. Turns appliances off when you are not home and turns them on when you are returning home.
Green Carrot Usage Comparison
Out of the 15 teams at the hackathon, five used Tendril APIs to create apps, including eMotivator, Green Carrot, Movable Feast, Auto Power Saver, and CleanGPA.
From these five we had the hard job of picking the winners of the first-ever Tendril Energy Internet and Smart Energy Home App Contest. After much debate and consideration, we’re proud to report that eMotivator won first place in the Tendril Energy Internet and Smart Energy Home app contest and walked away with $3,000. Green Carrot took the $2,000 second place prize (they also won $1,000 “best user experience” prize from the organizers of the hackathon). We’ll be giving the attendees of DistribuTECH a closer look at both these apps—as prime examples of the types of innovation that is coming out of the app dev community. If you’re at DistribuTECH, stop by booth #771 to see these winning apps as well as others already integrated on the Tendril platform
The Hackathon also recognized its own set of winning apps. Overall winner went to Econofy, who also won the Audience Choice award. Their prizes include round-trip travel to San Francisco and one week in the Greenstart clean-tech accelerator program and $1,500 for the Audience Choice award.
Congrats to the winners and all the teams that participated. The innovation displayed at the hackathon has left us awed.
Many thanks to the key organizers of the contest: Blake Burris, co-founding organizer, Cleanweb Hackathon, and CEO of Dynamo Labs; Sunil Paul, co-founding organizer, Cleanweb Hackathon, and founding director of Spring Ventures; and, Nicholas Eisenberger, co-founding organizer, Cleanweb Hackathon, and founder and managing partner of Pure Energy Partners. Additional thanks to Matt Solt from Civvic, Micah Kotch from NYU Poly, Sameer Rashid from Pure Energy Partners, Nick Allen from Spring Ventures, David Gilford from NYC Economic Development Corporation, David Yeh from Generation Investment Management, Harry Charalambides from the NY Academy of Sciences, Jean Barmash from EnergyScoreCards, and Jay-E Emmingham from the Pratt Center.
Additional thanks to the judges who had the tough job of choosing the hackathon winners, including Fred Wilson, principal, Union Square Ventures; Rachel Sterne, NYC chief digital officer; Frank Rimalovski, managing director, NYU Innovation Venture fund; Evan Korth, co-founder, Hack NY; Mike Shimazu, innovation and business development at NYSERDA; and, Maria Gotsch, president and CEO, New York City Investment Fund.
It was amazing to see the power of the cleanweb in addressing significant environmental and behavioral challenges. We had a fantastic time at the NYC Cleanweb Hackathon and we’re excited to start working on the next Cleanweb Hackathon.
Eric Shiflet and Chrysa Caulfield, Tendril Application Developer Program
CES, Smart Appliances and the Future of the Smart Energy Home
January 16th 2012
I was at CES last week, where I took part in a panel with executives from LG, Whirlpool (full disclosure, Whirlpool is a Tendril partner), and the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers. We were asked to discuss Smart Appliances: Ready for Prime Time?
This is a perennial question raised at CES—an event known as ground zero for futuristic consumer technology.
So, are smart appliances ready for prime time? I’d say yes, they are and they’ve likely been ready for quite sometime (check out some of the stuff Whirlpool and other appliance manufactures showed at CES and you be the judge).
But the future of smart appliances is not solely about the appliances. It’s about connecting the appliances to consumers and equally important, connecting them to the rapidly expanding ecosystem of “smart things” in the home (or for that matter to things outside the home, like an electric vehicle).
The value of each of these smart things increases when they are connected and communicating. By connecting and unlocking the value of these smart things, consumers can begin to control them (and one day, orchestrate and automate them). This yields significant benefits to consumers in the form of improved comfort and convenience.
Because most of these things consume energy, their collective connectivity and potential to be grid-responsive produces benefits to utilities, seeking to better manage load on the grid, improves operational efficiencies and meets the rapidly changing needs of their customers.
For the makers of smart appliances and other smart devices, the deployment of their smart goods enables them to develop a closer relationship with consumers and offer new services. For example, they can provide preventative maintenance and diagnostics—sending consumers alerts when their fridge needs a new water filter or when their dishwasher might need servicing.
We’ve had some experience in connecting things over the past 7 years through our extensive work with forward-thinking utilities and other energy service providers in the smart grid space. And we’ve learned a few important things about what it takes to connect smart things in the home—how to unlock their value for consumers, utilities and the makers of smart energy devices and services. Among these lessons:
- The home is heterogeneous. The average household has a multitude of things capable of communicating, like a meter (some have smart meters, some don’t), computers, phones, smart thermostats, set-top boxes, electric vehicles…well the list is quite extensive and it keeps getting longer (see lesson #2 below). They communicate using different protocols and standards and of course, each home is different than the next. Unless these things are connected and networked, their real value for consumers, utilities and product providers, like smart appliance manufacturers, will never be realized.
- And it’s only going to get more heterogeneous with the emergence of the Internet of Things: Cisco estimates by 2020 there’ll be more than 50 billion devices connected to the Internet. Others have covered what the Internet of Things means on this blog before, in terms of driving value across a chain that includes utilities, consumers, app developers and the makers of smart “things.”
- “Connecting and unlocking value” from heterogeneous ‘things’ requires an open scalable platform that can accommodate multiple standards and communications protocols. Getting these things to interoperate requires a common connector—a platform that is basically agnostic.
- Integrate once, connect everywhere: We believe that the manufacturers of “smart things” need a single platform that enables them to integrate once and connect everywhere—to consumers, energy providers and even each other. You can imagine how important this is for utilities, each with its own back-office systems, meter infrastructures and other systems. Interoperability becomes essential to making this possible.
This is why Tendril developed Tendril Connect, a secure and scalable cloud platform based on open standards (i.e., it’s agnostic). It unlocks the full potential of the smart grid and the smart energy home by connecting utilities, consumers and product and service providers. It offers the makers of smart appliances and other smart devices the ability to leap frog more than 7 years of deep integration work we’ve done with utilities and others in the smart grid arena. And after years of deep integration work connecting our platform with most of the major meters, a wide array of in-home devices, and applications (like an online social game application from Simple Energy), we know we connect them.
For those of you waiting for the day that your car tells your house to start you laundry and turn up the AC while you make your way home on a hot day, and in turn your AC uses power from solar panels to make all this possible, you may not be waiting much longer. These things are all possible today. Judging by what I saw at CES, the “smart things” like appliances are definitely ready.
The future of smart appliances and the growing ecosystem of connected smart things is here. We can’t wait to connect it.
Kent Dickson, Chief Technology Officer
One Size (Does Not) Fit All—A Case for Segmented Services
November 28th 2011
I recently participated on a panel, “Initiating Customer Action,” at the Peak Load Management Alliance’s fall conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee, hosted by Tennessee Valley Authority. We examined a topic that Tendril has devoted a lot of time to researching—and something we often stress to our utility customers—energy consumers are not one and the same, which is why segmentation research is key to engaging consumers.
Up until recently, many consumers were only in touch with their energy providers when they paid their bill or when the lights went out. However, with the increasing use of energy monitoring web applications and smart devices, the proliferation of PV installations, and the pending growth of electric vehicle (EV) use, utilities need to prepare for a more informed, connected and independent consumer in order to stay relevant. Furthermore, as utilities roll out demand response (DR), energy efficiency (EE) and other programs, participation can be increased dramatically by taking time to understand what types of preferences their customers have, and tailoring offerings to meet those needs.
Patty Durand, executive director of Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative (SGCC), also participated on the panel, referencing SGCC’s newly published survey revealing five distinct types of U.S. residential electric consumers out of the 1,200 people who participated:
“Concerned greens” (31%) are extremely protective of the environment and in full support of smart grid initiatives. They are eager and willing to participate in energy management programs. “Young America” (23%) does not know much about smart grid initiatives but are open to learning about the potential environmental benefits and cost savings. “Easy street” (20%) consumers have the highest income and are reluctant to change their personal habits around energy because savings are not as important to them. “DIY & save” (16%) types are focused on providing for their families, not global environmental issues. They find their own ways to conserve energy like installing new windows in their homes, or manually unplugging televisions to avoid draining power in standby mode. And “Traditionals” (11%) are content with the way things are and see no need for energy reform.
The common argument against segmentation is that it will scare people off—too many options and they’ll be overwhelmed. Tendril could not disagree more with this assessment. Our research reinforces much of what was found in the survey, and ultimately shows that consumers want choice. In other parts of our lives, we are given choices every day. Whether it’s searching for a new car, deciding what type of coffee to drink or selecting a new cell phone plan, despite the “overwhelming” number of options, people have always been capable of choosing the best offering for themselves—why can’t the same be said for home energy?
And segmentation saves money, as Jessica Strömbäck, executive director of Smart Energy Demand Coalition, who rounded out the panel, pointed out. Her 2010 comparison of 80 demand response pilots showed that in the California Statewide Pricing Pilot less than 30% of the population accounted for approximately 80% of the energy savings, implying that potentially 60% of the budget could have been saved through skillful segmentation.
In order to get the most out of their consumer-facing smart-grid services, utilities need to move from a one-size-fits-all model to targeted programs and multiple offerings. We agree and in fact Katherine Tweed from Greentech Media covered this in an article a few months back, after she spoke with Adrian Tuck, CEO, Tendril about how Tendril has helped utilities learn more about their customers:
“One of Tendril’s utility clients wanted to get customers signed up for demand response programs by giving away smart thermostats that people could use to participate. Tendril marketed the exact same product to specific groups using three distinct messages: environmental stewardship, cool new technology, and saving money. The program was oversubscribed before lunchtime on the first day it was available.”
Utilities in deregulated markets like Texas and Australia are already providing options to their customers, to great success. Regulated utilities that act first, and make an effort to understand customer segments and establish a dialogue early on, will stand to gain the most when pending changes in the market take choice away from the utilities—and make segmented options for consumers a priority.
Mark Gately, Segment Marketing Analyst
Removing Obstacles to Private Sector Funding for Energy Efficiency
October 25th 2011
Last May I attended the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) Energy Efficiency Finance Forum where Capital-E (in the interest of full disclosure, our Board Member, Greg Kats, is the President at Capital E) held a workshop of 25 banks, investors, regulators, project d
evelopers and industry organizations to co-design new financing mechanisms for large-scale energy efficiency projects.
As a result, a coalition of five of the 10 largest banks in the U.S., as well as major real estate and industry players (including Tendril, who provided input and review on the report), today released a report entitled “Energy Efficiency Financing: Models and Strategies.” The report details how the private sector can rapidly and cost-effectively expand private investment in energy efficiency. The findings are eye opening and underscore the need to scale private sector funding for energy efficiency.
According to the report, the opportunity exists today to finance $150 million per year in energy efficiency projects that could yield double-digit financial returns. This level of investment over 10 years could result in a $200 billion annual savings for U.S. businesses and households, and create more than 1 million full-time jobs.
Yup, you read that right: 1 million full-time jobs—pretty impressive given the economic climate and acute need for jobs.
This level of funding in energy efficiency projects would be a more than five-fold increase from current levels of about $20 billion per year, making the American economy more competitive, enhancing national security, and helping slow the impacts of climate change.
From our own corner of the energy industry, we know for a fact that investment in energy efficiency and energy management has yielded jobs. During 2011, Tendril has added many jobs – on average, 10 new full-time employees each month. We are just one example of the economic expansion and job growth potential of the clean tech economy.
But be under no illusion, further growth in clean tech will require continuing and significant private sector investment. It becomes even more imperative in light of the winding down of some $40 billion in public stimulus funding for energy efficiency and clean energy programs, which begins to fade at the end of this year and ends completely in 2013.
Relative to almost every other investment, private sector energy efficiency financing has the potential to cost effectively create more distributed jobs, reduce energy costs for businesses and households at all income levels, cut air pollution and enhance domestic security.
So how do we encourage private investment for large-scale energy efficiency projects and fill the gap from federal funding decreases? The report evaluates and maps out multiple pathways to scale private sector investment into energy efficiency, with models ranging from Energy Savings Performance Contracting (ESPC), Energy Services Agreements, State/Municipal Loan Programs, Sustainable Energy Utilities, Carbon Market Funding, Mortgage-Backed EE Financing, Preferential Terms for Green/EE Buildings, Utility On-bill Financing, Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) – Commercial, Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) – Residential and Unsecured Consumer Loans, and provides an assessment that includes the growth potential of each model.
The good news is that there are multiple pathways to grow this much needed private investment in energy efficiency, and the upside could be huge in terms of economic growth, job creation and sustainability improvements to the world around us.
Ivo Steklac, COO
Cleanweb Sandboxes
October 7th 2011
This week in Austin, the first-ever SXSW Eco event took place. Adrian Tuck, CEO, Tendril participated in a panel on the Networked Grid: The Convergence of IT and Electricity Distribution.
SXSW Eco covered a lot of important topics on sustainability, with participation from some of the brightest minds from business, government, media, academia and non-profits. It was a place where a lot of big thinkers discussed big ideas. These are exactly the type of discussions we believe are imperative to advance environmental sustainability and innovation.
Innovation was a recurring theme at SXSW Eco especially as it relates to the emerging cleanweb industry—an area to which Tendril is committed.
In a panel on CleanTech 2.0: What it is and Where it’s Going panelists Nick Allen of Spring Ventures and Mike Dauber of Battery Ventures, among others, talked about the need to foster innovation to develop new solutions to sustainability challenges.
Mike Dauber aptly observed that in the cleantech space there are no test beds—no sandboxes or playgrounds for developers and others to innovate. That the solutions being developed in cleantech are capital intensive—in essence creating a barrier of entry in an industry where we need more creative solutions.
We agree. In fact, we’ve always believed that in the area of home energy management, we have to be humble about predicting the killer app. Rather than predicting it, we focus on providing a platform that can serve as fertile ground for the development of new applications. In order to solve big problems like energy management, you have to provide the conditions under which new thinking and creativity can take place. We like to think our cloud-based Tendril Connect platform does that.
We spent 7 years building it, based on open standards, to be secure and scalable. We’ve built it so it integrates with multiple communications protocols and standards like 3G, Wi-Fi, IP and ZigBee as well as mesh networks and meter protocols. It integrates with the expanding world of smart-enabled devices, like Whirlpool smart appliances, smart thermostats, and EVs. And in August we began opening our APIs, and announced our app developer program and have multiple datasets developers can use to “play.” And the response has been great—with more than 60 developers applying in the first few weeks of the program.
But developers need more sandboxes and that is what Tendril is creating through its Application Developer Program. Both Mike Dauber and Nick Allen referenced the recent, first-ever Cleanweb Hackathon that took place last month in San Francisco (Eric Shiflet, Tendril’s Ecosystem Segment Manger blogged about Tendril’s participation in the event—which Tendril sponsored). In less than 30 hours, developers, some using Tendril APIs, built really innovative, new applications. We need more hackathons where app developers can play with multiple data sets, from multiple vendors and with APIs from multiple platforms.
If you’re interested in building an app on our platform you can sign-up to be part of the Tendril Application Developer program here.
In the meantime, we hope to be involved in many, many more cleanweb hackathons and events like SXSW Eco—where the power of creative minds is put to use solving important, global challenges.
Our thanks to the organizers, sponsors and participants at SXSW Eco. We hope this is the first of many successful events.
Mike Ruth, Senior Director, Product Marketing
The Lasting Impact of a Legend: Farewell to Steve Jobs
October 6th 2011
Steve Jobs was a legend. There’s no disputing it. As such, today is a sad day for me, as Tendril’s founder knowing that so much of what Steve did has served as inspiration for me and for Tendril.
I started my career as a 21-year-old neophyte at the company Jobs built. In the culture that Jobs built. Several of my friends were amongst those who were in the building that flew the pirate flag; that signaled to the world that nothing less than success, nothing less than greatness was acceptable. Steve goes down in my book as the greatest entrepreneur to ever live. Tom Watson (IBM), Hewlett and Packard, Walt Disney; they have nothing on Steve. They’re one-hit wonders. Steve has done it 4 times. He built the Apple of the PC revolution that I knew and loved so well. Then, he built NeXT which became the underpinning of the 2nd Mac revolution. And after that? He turned a gang of brilliant 3D graphics engineers into the largest powerhouse in the animation business at Pixar. To top it off? He went into the same Apple that was decimated by poor managers and built the Apple we know today, the Apple of the iPod/iPhone/iPad mega-phenomena.
Even in his exit from Apple, Steve set the bar. He knew greatness. He knew when he was and was no longer capable of leading that pursuit. Kudos for him being the one to hold himself accountable to that lofty goal; most would have hung on to the bitter end.
What’s all of this have to do with Tendril?
Tendril was born from the legend and inspiration that was Steve. Off the company Steve built and the examples he set. When I founded Tendril, I strove for (and continue to strive for) the same pursuit of greatness that Jobs relentlessly pursued — greatness of product, greatness of customer fanaticism, greatness of shareholder return and, critically, greatness of the people who are and were fortunate enough to work at Apple. To all of these, Tendril has aspired from the beginning and will continue to aspire. We have a good start — and a long way to go to even approach the bar Steve set.
Crazy Horse is quoted to have said: “Without legends there would be no dreams. Without dreams there would be no greatness.” Steve is the legend that empowered me to dream and on which we hope the greatness of Tendril is built.
Goodbye, Steve. And thank you for all you have done for Tendril, for the industry and for the world.
Tim Enwall, CIO
Cleanweb Hackathon: A First for the Industry Signaling a Future Full of Innovation
September 20th 2011
Just over a week ago, I was part of a Tendril team that spent a weekend at the first ever Cleanweb Hackathon at the pariSoma innovation loft space in San Francisco.
And what a weekend it turned out to be—for developers, for the cleanweb community and for the future of innovation in this industry that is just beginning to be unleashed! We left more enthused about the potential for innovation in our industry than when we arrived, and were awed by what was created using our platform APIs in less than 30 hours. I really feel like I was part of a pivotal moment in the development of the cleanweb.
For the uninitiated, hackathons are events were developers get together for a few days to a week to build collaboratively, creating new applications and programs. Many of the applications found on Google and Facebook, for example, are the results of hackathons.
The Cleanweb Hackathon, however, was the first hackathon that we’re aware of that was devoted solely to creating apps to address environmental sustainability issues (energy, commuting, food distribution, etc.).
Developers at Work at Inaugural Cleanweb Hackathon
The hackathon came on the heels of our recently announced Tendril Connect Platform Application Developer Program and it turned out to be a great place for us open our APIs and give datasets to the vast talent and creative minds at the event to see what people would build on our cloud platform…and we weren’t disappointed. In fact we were amazed and even humbled by the creativity and collaboration that we encountered—which we feel bodes well for our industry, the future of innovation and environmental sustainability.
It was a jam-packed weekend that began with a happy hour on Friday night, followed by the actually “hacking” which began Saturday morning and concluded Sunday afternoon. Sunil Paul, a well-known Silicon Valley startup veteran from Brightmail and one of the hackathon’s organizers, kicked off the event with inspirational words on technology’s capabilities to give consumers information and control over their energy choices, among other environmental improvements we would soon see come to life. We were given a chance to present our APIs and datasets and with that developers were off and running.
The next 30 hours were largely fueled by caffeine, sheer dedication and drive from the developer teams, and a fun atmosphere of collaboration and competition.
People came together in teams around cohesive ideas, forming 14 teams total, including a Tendril team, and got to work late that morning… and worked and worked until 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. The energy was amazing, and developers jammed out to Feist, Ben Gibbard, Metric, The Shins, Pinback, Phoenix, The Kooks, Faces, Guster, Tegan and Vampire Weekend.
Team Tendril Works on Energy Battle App
Around 10:00 p.m., the Tendril team (of Greg Hengeli, Jacob Kaufman-Osborn and Greg Schoeninger) had been full-time coding since about 10:00 a.m.– with no signs up stopping work on their app, Energy Battle. (I heard they got a bit of sleep around 2:00 a.m.). Two other developer teams used the Tendril APIs for integration into their hack: TACO (Total Cost of Ownership) and Dr. Wattson.
Tendril was able to talk to a number of talented people and network with like-minded companies. I got the chance to get to know the folks from Genability, a San Francisco-based company that has created a platform that aggregates energy price programs from across the country, which proved to be valuable to all three teams using Tendril’s APIs. The teams mashed up Tendril’s residential usage data with Genability’s price programs to create comparisons, geographic heat maps, and games in their final products — a great example why open developer programs make platforms successful.
Around 1:45 a.m., I headed back to the hotel to get a few hours of sleep only to return by 8:00 a.m., where I found a few dedicated souls still awake from hacking through the night. By lunch, the place was hopping again with teams finishing up, and grabbing (delicious!) food when they could. Conversations were few and far between, except for the occasional:
“Did you use this API? How did you get it to work?”
“The docs aren’t quite right; do this to hack around it.”
“What exactly are the judges looking for?”
By 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 11th– the 14 teams’ applications were in. Several opened a beer (finally, overtaking caffeine consumption).
Before judging began, the teams had to pick up their table work areas, which reminded me of being 9 years old again: “Clean up this mess right now, or else!” Except, instead of bed-sheet forts and Lego towers, it was stacks of pizza boxes, collections of beer bottles and piles of candy wrappers, while folding ping-pong tables, deflating air mattresses and untangling Mac book power cords. And there were still a few folks madly banging on keyboards to write that last line of code.
Presentations to the judges began at 5:30 p.m. and each team had five minutes to present their concept and (hopefully) running code. I had the honor being a judge along with Yves Behar, founder of Fuse Project, Lew Tucker, Cisco, James Joaquin, Partner at Catamount Ventures, Sunil Paul, Spring Ventures, Scott Zimmermann, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and Alex Newman, Opower. I also presented the Tendril team’s Energy Battle app (which I recused myself from judging). While Tendril’s team didn’t win, I got “are you shipping this now?” after the event.
Judging was extremely difficult, and every team did an excellent job of utilizing resources, putting creative thought behind the purpose and problem they were trying to solve, and executing well beyond what 30 hours would normally yield.
We were totally impressed by the applications developed in just 30 hours and it’s proof positive of something we’ve long believed at Tendril: if we provide an open standards-based platform, that is scalable and secure and provide developers with the APIs, they will produce innovative applications.
Presentation from Developers of Dr. Wattson App
You can see for yourself the creative applications that were developed over the weekend. GigaOm webcast the app presentations and here’s a list of the apps created:
1. CommuteScore - Bringing your commute into the energy equation
2. Dr Wattson – Sleuthing out a better energy plan
3. EnergyBattle – iPhone app social game in energy (and created by the Tendril developer team!)
4. FreshList – RealTime local Food Sharing
5. GreenScore – How green is your neighborhood
6. GroMunity – Community gardening open market
7. Kijani Grows – One aquaponics farm per family
8. TACO – Product efficiency including lifetime energy cost
9. Tarzan – Trip planner/calender that includes info about sustainability and transportation in real time with traffic data.
10. Task Turtle – Slow & steady wins the race! CrowdSource tasks, if you’re not in a hurry, and wanna save $$
11. Tomatoe – Making sense of state data
12. Tread Greenly – May your products tread gently and sustainably…
13. Toxicslayar – Revealing the Toxic Trail, augmented reality layer to visualize toxic chemicals
14. WattsUpWithMe – Energy Choices Made Easy
A big congrats to TACO for winning the prize of Best Overall App from the judges, to Dr. Wattson for Audience Favorite (counted by tweets) and Sexiest UI from the judges! All the teams were amazing, and the developer team here at Tendril can’t wait for its next hackathon!
I also want to give a shout-out to the organizers of the event, including Sunil, Blake Burris, Suchi Sharma and Julian Nachtigal. They knocked it out of the park and we’re excited by plans to organize the next Cleanweb Hackathon later this year in New York. Who knows, the Larry Page or Sergey Brin of the cleanweb may be out there, just waiting for the next hackathon!
We can’t wait. In the meantime, if you’re itching to build an app on our platform, you can enroll in our app developer program here.
Eric Shiflet, Ecosystem Segment Manager