Introducing smart grids in residential contexts : consumers' perception of smart household appliances

A more energy efficient supply and demand in household settings is high on the agenda. Smart grids, smart meters, demand side management and smart appliances play a crucial role in this context. Many stakeholders are involved, but the exact role of the customer is often neglected. More specifically, his opinion, attitude, drivers or barriers towards new ways of energy consumption and energy management. This paper employs a user-centric perspective. It aims at mapping consumers perception of the possibilities of demand side management through smart household appliances. A quantitative survey was conducted among 500 households spread over Flanders, Belgium. In this paper, the results of this survey with regard to the respondents perception of smart appliances are presented. The Technology Acceptance Model was used as the theoretical framework to measure these perceptions

Broadband for culture, a culture for broadband?

The augmentation of cultural participation in Flanders is one of the major cornerstones of the current cultural policy. Digital technologies offer a wide range of opportunities to achieve this goal, as the internet is often seen as a way to augment the number of visitors for arts centres. However, the availability of digital information technologies and the willingness to adopt these new ways of processing cultural material, is a prerequisite for this (r)evolution. This article is based on data collected in three surveys, one for each of the cultural actors; cultural organisations such as museums, arts centres etc, individual artists and art lovers in Flanders. Despite that most artists and cultural organizations are sufficiently equipped with up-to-date technological infrastructure, most websites lack true interactivity with a strong one-to-one relationship between audience, artists and cultural institutions. We therefore conclude that, although there are plenty of broadband connections and other digital tools available to the Flemish art scene, artists and cultural organisations lack a mind-set (or culture) to truly embrace and benefit from the potential of the current digital technologies

Analogue switch-off vs digital switch-on: rethinking policy strategies in the digital television era

In the last few decades, the traditional television landscape has come under pressure and the diffusion of digital television (DTV) services emerged as a hot issue. Especially for policy makers, access to DTV is considered a key element in the further development of the information society. Facilitating equal access for all to the new possibilities offered by digital television should be the central objective. In this context, policy makers are confronted with various challenges: How can they facilitate a smooth transition from analogue to digital terrestrial television? How should they handle digital dividend issues? In dealing with these topics, this article stresses the importance of a user-oriented approach

IPEA: the digital archive use case

Now is the time to migrate tape-based media archives to digital file-based archives for television broadcasters. These archives not only address the issue of tape-deterioration, they also create new possibilities for opening up the archive. However, the switch from tape-based to file-based is something only the very big television broadcasters can manage individually. Outer- broadcasters should work together to accomplish this task. In the Flemish part of Belgium, the two largest broadcasters in Flanders, namely the commercial broadcaster VMMa and the public broadcaster VRT, the television facilities supporting company Videohouse, and different university research groups associated with the Interdisciplinary Institute for Broadband Technology joined forces and started the "Innovative Platform on Electronic Archiving" project. The goal of this project is to develop common standards for the exchange and archiving of audio-visual data. In this paper, we give a detailed overview of this project and its different research topics

Smart, smarter, smartest...: the consumer meets the smart electrical grid

In the current debate towards a more energy efficient supply and demand in household settings, notions such as smart grids, smart meters and smart appliances are of main importance. Different stakeholders are involved, but often neglected is the exact role of the customer, or more specific, his opinion, attitude, drivers or barriers towards these developments. As a consequence, this paper employs a user-centric perspective. It addresses issues such as the effect of giving personalized feedback on energy consumption and refers to studies that have been conducted concerning a possible future implementation of smart meters and smart appliances. Furthermore, it describes an innovative combination of different methodological techniques on the level of energy monitoring and user interrogation. This methodological set-up will allow to gain a clear insight in the willingness of consumers to accept different kinds of measures when it comes to smart metering and smart appliances in their daily life, as to have an efficient user adoption in the future