4 ms·

That, I believe. But don’t try to wrap that in some nonsense about customers wanting it. What we want from water is safety. Period.

ocdtrekkie 6y ago
I would also point out if you sell and support SCADA systems, the village is your customer/consumer, which I believe the parent post also alluded to.
at_a_remove 6y ago
You are not the customer. You do not buy the SCADA system. You are the consumer. You want pure water. That I believe. The people buying the SCADA system want to be able to look at a dashboard while staying at home in their slippers during COVID-19. Worse yet, the SCADA system might have already been bought some time ago -- as is very common -- and adding "Hey I want to look at this from home!" might have happened a decade after the purchase.
kodah 6y ago
As I noted, I worked for a smart cities company, the consumer for a SCADA and complimenting systems are both city employees and residents. You would also be surprised at what people desire out of their local water company. Portals and online payments were very much in demand. People don't like writing checks or having to go up to the municipal buildings to pay their bills. > What we want from water is safety. This is a different subject altogether. That said, the kind of pressure and pump monitoring systems I mentioned are all part of keeping water safe.
- dabbledash 6y ago
  - You can have a website that takes payments without putting the infrastructure online. Take what you get from the human meter reader, put it in a database. The real negative impact of meter reading isn’t the lack of the online billing, it’s that the water company might not be able to bill as often and might have to sometimes bill on estimates, so people can get saddled with surprise bills - I don’t believe the two are actually related but if I believed that setting up a payment website required introducing huge security vulnerabilities, I’d rather mail a check. And I hate mailing checks. - As for the sellers viewing the water companies as their customers: I agree; that makes sense. But the water companies are public utilities and if they’re putting their own convenience over the safety of residents, it should be addressed with regulation.
  - kodah 6y ago
    > You can have a website that takes payments without putting the infrastructure online. Take what you get from the human meter reader, put it in a database. This has been done since the dawn of water management. Manual meter reading is the source of most errors in a system. SCADA systems generally don't get directly tied in with meter management and billing, but they are required somewhere in many processes. Sorry if I didn't make that clear. > I don’t believe the two are actually related but if I believed that setting up a payment website required introducing huge security vulnerabilities, I’d rather mail a check. And I hate mailing checks. It doesn't. What I said is about how these things happen. It doesn't mean the only way to achieve a "smart city" is via TeamViewer. Outfitting your system with devices designed with the SCADA security model in mind has proven to work. > But the water companies are public utilities and if they’re putting their own convenience over the safety of residents, it should be addressed with regulation. I'd caution you against routinely arriving at maximalist interpretations. This has very little to do with convenience and more to do with efficiency, safety, and resource management which makes your water cheaper, safer, and less likely to be lost.

ocdtrekkie 6y ago

I would also point out if you sell and support SCADA systems, the village is your customer/consumer, which I believe the parent post also alluded to.

at_a_remove 6y ago

You are not the customer. You do not buy the SCADA system. You are the consumer. You want pure water. That I believe. The people buying the SCADA system want to be able to look at a dashboard while staying at home in their slippers during COVID-19. Worse yet, the SCADA system might have already been bought some time ago -- as is very common -- and adding "Hey I want to look at this from home!" might have happened a decade after the purchase.

kodah 6y ago

As I noted, I worked for a smart cities company, the consumer for a SCADA and complimenting systems are both city employees and residents. You would also be surprised at what people desire out of their local water company. Portals and online payments were very much in demand. People don't like writing checks or having to go up to the municipal buildings to pay their bills. > What we want from water is safety. This is a different subject altogether. That said, the kind of pressure and pump monitoring systems I mentioned are all part of keeping water safe.

dabbledash 6y ago
- You can have a website that takes payments without putting the infrastructure online. Take what you get from the human meter reader, put it in a database. The real negative impact of meter reading isn’t the lack of the online billing, it’s that the water company might not be able to bill as often and might have to sometimes bill on estimates, so people can get saddled with surprise bills - I don’t believe the two are actually related but if I believed that setting up a payment website required introducing huge security vulnerabilities, I’d rather mail a check. And I hate mailing checks. - As for the sellers viewing the water companies as their customers: I agree; that makes sense. But the water companies are public utilities and if they’re putting their own convenience over the safety of residents, it should be addressed with regulation.
- kodah 6y ago
  > You can have a website that takes payments without putting the infrastructure online. Take what you get from the human meter reader, put it in a database. This has been done since the dawn of water management. Manual meter reading is the source of most errors in a system. SCADA systems generally don't get directly tied in with meter management and billing, but they are required somewhere in many processes. Sorry if I didn't make that clear. > I don’t believe the two are actually related but if I believed that setting up a payment website required introducing huge security vulnerabilities, I’d rather mail a check. And I hate mailing checks. It doesn't. What I said is about how these things happen. It doesn't mean the only way to achieve a "smart city" is via TeamViewer. Outfitting your system with devices designed with the SCADA security model in mind has proven to work. > But the water companies are public utilities and if they’re putting their own convenience over the safety of residents, it should be addressed with regulation. I'd caution you against routinely arriving at maximalist interpretations. This has very little to do with convenience and more to do with efficiency, safety, and resource management which makes your water cheaper, safer, and less likely to be lost.