Ray Ozzie on environment
From Fireside chat with Wienke Giezeman, The Things Industries and Ray Ozzie, Blues · · The Things Industries
“A couple weeks after the meltdown we converged in Tokyo and decided the best thing we could do was use our skills to measure radiation on the ground because the government and the power company had their hands full and really weren't giving people any data they could use to ascertain whether their children were safe.”
On , Ray Ozzie, CEO of Blues Wireless at Blues Wireless, spoke about environment during Fireside chat with Wienke Giezeman, The Things Industries and Ray Ozzie, Blues on The Things Industries.
About Ray Ozzie
Ray Ozzie, CEO of Blues Wireless, has been active in discussions about the Internet of Things (IoT) and the challenges of simplifying cellular connectivity for developers. In a December 2023 fireside chat, Ozzie described his company's focus on creating an "embeddable data pump" that allows hardware developers to treat cellular as a straightforward data pipe, bypassing complexities such as power management, security, and modem commands. He noted that Blues Wireless products, including the Note Card and Swan module, are designed to reduce the time from prototype to deployment, aiming to shrink a typical three-year cycle to six months. Ozzie also expressed views on the IoT ecosystem, stating that it remains fragmented and that the industry has not yet "picked the winners" in terms of toolchains, which he said keeps the market chaotic. Ozzie has also discussed his involvement with Safecast, a citizen-science project that grew out of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. He described how volunteers, including himself, collaborated to measure radiation and publish open data after the meltdown, an effort he said demonstrated how IoT technology can provide environmental awareness. In November 2021, Ozzie helped unveil the Safecast Air Note, an outdoor air quality monitor that sells for $150 with no ongoing subscription, and which contributes data to the Safecast open dataset under a Creative Commons Zero license. He has characterized the device as a simple, single-purpose tool for measuring outdoor particulate matter.