I’ll explain those strange biographical details later. But, first, it’s important for you to understand that Jonas has a powerful vision of the future of data analytics that could transform the way people think about and use information. He calls it “sensemaking on streams.”

Every entity in the universe, whether it’s a person or an asteroid or a building, has a set of identifying characteristics that help us differentiate that entity from every other one. Entities are in motion, physically, and they’re changing in other ways. Their relationships to each other are shifting, as well. Every day, individuals and organizations are bombarded with many bits of disconnected information about entities. These days, because of the Internet, sensor networks, mobile communications and other technologies, we receive a huge volume of signals. Sometimes it seems like our heads will explode, right?

For the past 3 ½ years, Jonas and a small team at IBM  have been developing a new software program, code-named G2, with a goal of making sense of all of this information, as it flows in, so we can act on it. “Every piece of data is a question. It’s like the piece of a puzzle,” he says. “As each piece comes in, we have to understand what it is and how it might fit into the puzzle.”

G2, an analytics engine, puts all the pieces of information in context of everything else we know that’s related. Each additional piece of information also changes the shape of the puzzle. This puzzle has no edges—only more pieces.

In the past, a lot of the puzzle pieces just fell in huge piles. We collected some and tried to organize them, or we didn’t even bother.

But now, G2 begins to make it possible to manage the flow of data and make sense of it—sizing things up and signaling what to do in about 200 milliseconds. “Data talks to itself,” Jonas says.

Jonas could have benefited from data talking to itself a couple of years ago. One of his charge card numbers was stolen without him realizing it. He doesn’t review his card bills closely, and, because the thief sneakily charged only a few hundred dollars per billing period, neither the card company nor Jonas knew what was up for several months. Finally, the card issuer spotted a suspicious anomaly and alerted him.

In the future, Jonas believes, G2 will prevent this sort of thing from happening. If individuals give their credit card companies permission to gather and compare bits of information about them and put the pieces in context, they’ll be able to know if a person is spending his or her money or somebody else is spending it. For instance, if Jonas’ Facebook page says he’s in Bucharest but somebody’s trying to buy jewelry at Tiffany’s in New York with his credit card, the transaction can be stopped before it goes through.

There are untold numbers of potential uses for G2, from banking and cybersecurity to logistics and public safety. Pieces of Jonas’ G2 vision will start to appear in IBM products before too long.

Now, concerning all the strange biographical details I mentioned at the top: You’ll have to wait for a future post.

Technorati Tags: IBM Fellow, jeff jonas

In the 1930’s only 10 percent of rural American households were served by electricity. As the REA and the TVA brought power to unserved regions, public power companies were faced with a double challenge. Not only did we have the duty of building infrastructure that would take electricity to the countryside, but we also had to educate our communities on how this new technology could be applied to enhance their lives.

Seven decades later, we face the same challenge. But instead of electricity, it is broadband service that is on course to change our lives. The delivery of voice, data and even video at high speeds is the culmination of years of research and development that began with basic consumer dial-up service in the early 1990’s. I do not believe it is an exaggeration to say that broadband service is the single most important technological issue of this generation, and that it will have the greatest impact on society since basic electricity and telephone service.

At Cullman Electric Cooperative, we have kept a watchful eye on an emerging technology known as ‘broadband over power lines,’ or BPL. The possibilities are incredible. As Michael Powell, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, told BusinessWeek a few years ago: “Think about it… if every electrical plug becomes a broadband port, that would be huge.”

Our interest in this issue naturally stems from the fact that it could dramatically impact our industry. But beyond that, we see BPL as a technology that could become particularly important to homes and businesses in rural areas like those served by Cullman Electric Cooperative.

The industry has moved beyond the question “can voice, data and video be transmitted effectively, safely and rapidly over power lines?”. Research has provided an affirmative answer. Now the questions are “can this technology be deployed to the masses economically?” and “will the equipment stand the test of time?”.

To help answer these questions — and new ones as they arise — Cullman Electric Cooperative is involved in one of the few live BPL pilot programs going on in the nation. We have partnered with IBM and International Broadband Electric Communications, Inc. (IBEC) of Huntsville, Alabama, to turn our lines and poles into a research facility. IBM and IBEC’s knowledge of BPL technology is joining forces with our experience and expertise as an electric utility to validate two distinct BPL applications.

The first is distribution system security through video surveillance. IBEC’s equipment is consistently sending real-time video of a stretch of power line and our headquarters back to a designated central monitoring facility. This could prove invaluable as our industry moves toward more stringent security regulations, allowing us to forego considerable costs by using existing infrastructure to transmit video.

The second application is broadband Internet service to locations within our system. I am pleased to report that several of our members are involved in this pilot, and that they are successfully uploading and downloading data through an ‘always-on’ Internet connection via an electrical outlet.

There are still other applications of this technology to explore. Cullman Electric Cooperative could one day monitor and control our remote equipment through BPL. This technology could also allow us to read our meters remotely.

Another exciting possibility is a wireless network that would allow any customer with a password to access the Internet from any location that was near a power line — in their home or office, on the road or on a park bench.

Studies estimate that 37 percent of Americans live in areas that most likely will never be served by broadband service via cable or DSL. I believe our customers should be able to enjoy the benefits of rural life without being left behind in terms of technology. BPL may well be the means whereby public power companies once again take bold steps — just like we did 70 years ago — to bring the power of technology to rural America and thereby change people’s lives for the better.

Grady Smith is the CEO of Cullman Electric Cooperative in Cullman, AL