Welcome to Home Technology Integration

Welcome, reader, to Home Technology Integration (.org). ht-int.org for short.

You may be wondering what this site is all about. That is understandable, as I haven’t told you yet: it’s about home technology integration. By which I mean, it’s a site for the discussion of home technologies (any technology which you might find around the home), and how these technologies can be integrated - both with each other, with the home itself, and with the lifestyles of its users. This is very similar to the concept of home automation, but takes a somewhat broader remit, and focuses on the relationships around technologies rather than gadgetry for its own sake.

Why does this need a new website, and at this particular moment in time? Well, there’s a lot of fragmented discussion going on about home technologies, including Smart Homes, Smart Metering, Home Automation and all sorts of other disparate concepts, but navigating the various sub-interests and, let’s be fair, cliques, is a challenge. By creating this site, I hope to provide an open platform for the discussion of anything which might conceivably come under the topic of home technology (and its integration). By providing focus and communication, I hope that this will allow the community as a whole to grow.

The key areas of the site are as follows:

• Q & A - a place to ask (and answer) questions about home technology integration. There is a lot of expertise out there, and also a lot of complexity; bringing the two into contact in a question and answer format seems like a useful step.
• Forums - less structured than Q & A, this is a place for discussion and conversation, particularly when there is no definite answer. Comments are also enabled for many pages on the site; any feedback is always welcome!
• Polls - a quick and easy attempt to judge the mood of visitors to the site, on a variety of changing topics. Feel free to suggest polls in the general discussion forum
• Articles - such as this post you’re reading here. I will be posting some thoughts on technology and automation, which will hopefully ignite some discussion.

In time, I hope to add both reviews and more detailed guides on a variety of topics - there are plans afoot, it’s only a matter of time.

Incidentally, you are welcome to use pseudonyms when registering; I don’t believe in the idea that online personalities should be linked 1:1 with the real world (unlike Facebook and Google), which is why I am represented to you here as Hermes Trismegistus, syncretic embodiment of writing and magic - what other guise could be more appropriate when talking about sufficiently advanced technology?