As I lay out in my weekly update at GigaOm Pro (subscription required), 2011 could give some long-running green IT assertions a chance to prove themselves. Sheer power capacity restraints — not enough substations per data center — are forcing data centers to constrain energy consumption. That could make 2011 the year for lower-power challengers to Intel’s x86 architecture’s server dominance.

Atom-based servers from SeaMicro and the ARM-based systems from Marvell and startup Smoothstone offer low power use in exchange for slower performance, and Nvidia’s upcoming ARM-based server CPU for integration with its GPUs, could provide a new low-power, high-performance alternative. How quickly these offerings find their way into servers and data centers may help indicate what value the market places on energy efficiency.

Then there’s cloud computing, which could be more energy-efficient as a byproduct of its overall promise to better-manage IT assets. Microsoft says switching to the cloud can shave 30 to 90 percent of the carbon footprint from large to small enterprise computing environments. But when the power used to transport data to and from the cloud becomes large enough, cloud computing can be a net energy loser. I’d be interested in seeing the math behind cloud computing efficiency across more use cases — data-intensive video streaming or storage retrieval, versus simple web hosting and office support type situations. That would give the industry more visibility into just how green their cloud computing plans really are.

Finally, while green data centers are all the rage, office computing environments aren’t investing as much to energy-manage their networked IT environments — even when the technology can pay itself off in less than a year’s time, as startup Verdiem claims, or cut power bills by 20 percent, as Fujitsu promises. More advanced technology, such as from French startup AVOB’s promise to ramp down processor speed and voltage, promises even deeper savings and faster payback. Will corporate IT pick up on the offer?

Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):

• How to Make Cloud Computing Greener
• Pushing Processors Past Moore’s Law
• Thing Converged Infrastructure Means Lock In? Think Again.

Image courtesy of Ramsesoriginal via Creative Commons license.

AVOB (aka “Alternative Vision of Business”) formally launched in the U.S. on Monday, but it already has corporate customers including Airbus, Air France, Renault and the French post office, La Poste. CEO Pierre Duchesne says that AVOB can fine-tune processor speed and voltage to squeeze 20 percent more efficiency out of networked PCs, compared to similar technologies that merely tackle sleep and wake cycles, power saving settings and the like.

Chipmakers have been incorporating such power-saving features into their newest chipsets, and AVOB says its system has been certified to work with the latest, including Intel iSeries and AMD Hexacore. That kind of assurance will no doubt be critical for the startup as it seeks new customers, since few CIOs are likely to welcome untested technology into their computing environments to ramp processor voltage up and down.

That extra functionality to dial down speed and voltage will also be important to differentiate AVOB from its well-established competitors. Seattle-based startup Verdiem has gotten a lot of attention for its Surveyor energy management product for networked computers, and has linked more than 1 million PCs for customers including Cox Communications and the cities of Honolulu, Chicago and Seattle. Competitor 1E has been selling its PC management software for over a decade, with customers including AT&T, Verizon Wireless and HSBC. NEC, IBM and Fujitsu also offer services for managing PC energy use. Whether any of them are taking the next step into managing active processor power, as AVOB has been doing, remains to be seen.

And then there’s Cisco, whose EnergyWise offering intends to link networked PCs — along with Ethernet-powered devices and building HVAC, lighting, security and other power-using systems — to control power use. Cisco named Verdiem as its PC power management partner when it launched in January 2009, but Duchesne told me that AVOB’s technology has been deployed with Cisco’s EnergyWise in France and that the company is “making studies” with Cisco for potential deployments elsewhere.

As for markets, AVOB is primarily tackling the enterprise, where it promises to charge no up-front license fee. Instead, it starts by deploying and establishing a baseline of networked PC energy use within a month, and then bases ongoing licensing fees on how much energy — and power bill — savings it can deliver to the customer. As Duchesne told me, “I can say to a CIO, ‘Do you want to save money with us?’ It’s as if I arrived with a check.”

It will be interesting to see if competitors copy this model, which does require tracking of both initial and ongoing energy use — a function Verdiem’s Surveyor product also offers. Both Verdiem and AVOB have products for individual PC owners as well, and AVOB is launching a cloud-hosted service model for small to mid-size businesses as part of its move into the U.S. market, though that will be built on a more traditional licensing business model.

AVOB has remained almost unnoticed in U.S. tech press circles, though it has been well-covered in France. As for backing, the company was started with “friends and family” seed investment, as well as an undisclosed angel round from French “broadband maverick” Xavier Niel through his KIMA Venture Fund.

For more research on cleantech financing and next-gen transportation check out GigaOM Pro (subscription required):

• Cleantech Financing Trends: 2010 & Beyond
• Car Data As the Next Platform for Innovation
• The Real Reason Google Is Buying Wind Power

In my case, I work for a large corporation with some days in the office and other days working at home, but I’ve also done this job while working full-time as a remote employee. As a matter of fact, I’m about to shift back to working from home full-time for three months while our office building is remodeled. While I’ll be discussing full-time community management work in this post, it’s also a great gig for freelancers or consultants.

This isn’t the first time I’ve blogged about being a community manager here on WebWorkerDaily, but it’s been a while since I wrote about community manager careers, so I thought that it was time for a refresh. I did a whole series of posts over a year ago with details about the job, what it takes to be successful, what we do and the dark side of community management. Most or all of that content is still relevant, so I recommend going back and reading that series if you are new to the blog or if you just want a refresher.

Each online community uses slightly different tools, including established environments based in IRC and mailing lists, forums, wikis, complete social networks and more. Because the community that I manage is fairly large with several different audiences, we use a wide variety of tools. Software developer interactions take place mostly on mailing lists, IRC, bug trackers and code repositories; users of the software interact mostly in the forums; we have a wiki for documentation; and we use a few other miscellaneous tools. Regardless of the tools used, I can access and manage the community whether I am in the office, at home or in a coffee shop. This gives me the flexibility to manage the community regardless of where I am physically located.

Community management is a hot career right now, and quite a few companies are looking for community managers or related positions (social media managers, moderators, etc.) Companies like Zappos, Samsung and Wieden + Kennedy have recently hired community managers while other companies like Wikia, EMC and Google are actively looking for people to fill online community positions. I’ve even had several people email me in the past couple of weeks asking me if I knew any experienced community managers who might be interested in their positions.

The best community managers are the ones with several years of experience under their belt and the scars to prove that they’ve been around for long enough to have a good idea of what works and what doesn’t, but we all have to start somewhere. Community management isn’t one of those traditional careers where you get a degree and start work in your chosen field. Most good community managers have a diverse background with good communication skills, organization or project management background, and some specialized experience and a passion for the type of community being managed (hardcore gamers managing gaming communities; people with technical backgrounds managing developer communities, etc.) In fact, many of us transitioned into online community roles out of other related careers.

I occasionally speak to groups of university students about community management careers. If you want more information about the job requirements, salaries, job satisfaction and more, you might also be interested in this presentation about community manager careers that I delivered about a month ago at two local universities.

What are some other interesting careers for remote web workers?

Image by Flickr user luc legay used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

Wind turbine maker Nordic Windpower, biofuel maker Solix Biofuels, and PC energy management firm Verdiem, all filed fund raising documents on Monday afternoon. Meanwhile smart thermostat maker EcoFactor plans to release its funding announcement tomorrow, and filed its fund raising documents last Wednesday. Together the four companies have raised close to $25 million and plan to raise collectively a total of over $50 million.

Nordic Windpower, a 5-year-old company that was created to commercialize a 2-blade Swedish wind power technology in the U.S., is looking at the biggest raise so we’ll start with them first. The Berkeley, Calif.-based company is planning to raise a little over $30 million and has already raised just over $12 million.

Previously Nordic has been backed by Goldman Sachs, Khosla Ventures, NEA, Novus Energy Partners, Impax Asset Management, I2BF Venture Capital and Pulsar Energy Capital. And the company received a $16 million federal loan guarantee to build an assembly plant for its two-blade 1 MW wind turbine.

Update: Nordic Windpower released its funding announcement on Tuesday morning and puts the total raised to $38 million led by Khosla Ventures, and including New Enterprise Associates, Novus Energy Partners, and Impax Asset Management.

Next up: Solix Biofuels. The five-year-old algae fuel producer, which was spun out of Colorado State University, amended a previous fund-raising filing today and is now looking to raise an $11 million round of convertible notes and warrants, and has already raised $5 million of that round. Back in 2008, its first outside funding of $10.5 million came from I2BF Venture Capital, Bohemian Investments, Infield Capital, Southern Ute Alternative Energy, (which manages clean power investments for the Southern Ute Indian tribe) and Valero Energy, the largest U.S. oil refinery operator.

Last but not least, the two green IT firms EcoFactor and Verdiem. According to the filing, PC energy management firm Verdiem has raised $4.71 million of a $5.93 million round from investors including Kleiner Perkins and Catamount Ventures (full post here). EcoFactor, which makes algorithms to manage smart thermostats, is in the process of raising $4.5 million, and has already raised $2.39 million partly from Claremont Creek Ventures (full post here).

Perhaps startups are taking the opportunity of the new year to file those docs, or are seeing a more friendly landscape in 2010. Either way, it was a big funding day for greentech folks.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• How energy data will impact the smart grid
• Big data meets the smart grid
• California’s New Energy Data Privacy Rules: Some Answers, Many Questions

Verdiem makes a software program called Surveyor that centrally monitors and manages the energy consumption of networked business PCs. The company also has a consumer-facing product called Edison, which is free and downloadable from the web. Its Surveyor product, however, provides the bulk of the company’s revenues, and costs about $30 to $60 per PC per year, with an average return on investment of between eight and nine months according to the company.

We’ve reached out to the company to see how it plans to spend the funds. But my best guess would be simply growth and customer outreach. The company has already brought in customers like cable firm Cox Communications, which deployed Verdiem’s software on 15,000 PCs, the city of Chicago (for almost 9,500 PCs), the city of Honolulu (for almost 1,700 computers) and the city of Seattle. Verdiem also has a high-profile deal with Microsoft, which could help bring in new customers, and new funding could help pave the way to more partnership deals.

While Verdiem seems to be the solution of choice for many organizations looking to reduce the energy consumption of networked PCs, the technology itself could face increased competition this year. PC energy management software isn’t all that high-tech and any larger software maker (like Microsoft) could jump into the space. 1E has also been selling its PC management software for over a decade, counting among its customers AT&T, Verizon Wireless and HSBC, and saying it invented the PC power management sector. And 1E launched an energy management server edition in October.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Flash analysis: the Fisker debacle and its implications on investing, innovation, and government incentives
• Cleantech venture capital heads east
• Building energy management systems: overview and forecast

Making a short film and putting it online, however, is a great way to build some buzz, and that’s the goal of Rodrigo Blaas, an animator who’s worked for Pixar and Fox over the last ten years. The short film Alma, which Blaas wrote and directed, picked up awards this year at the Fantastic Fest, Siggraph, Animacor, Boca del Lobo, LA Shorts Fest and other festivals (a journey Blaas documented on the film’s official blog) — but only a short teaser was online until last week, when Blaas made the complete film available via Vimeo as a gesture of holiday cheer.

The Pixar influence is clear in Alma, from the silent-film storytelling to the high-quality 3D CGI rendering of its adorable protagonist. But despite Pixar’s tradition of screening original shorts prior to its feature releases, don’t expect to see this tale of a little girl investigating a mysterious doll shop playing before Toy Story 3 — the narrative is simple yet eerie, ending on a dark twist more evocative of Stephen King than Walt Disney. “The inspiration came from the life-like doll my aunt had at her home. That doll scared the hell out of me as a kid,” Blaas said via email.

While technically an independent production, Blaas teamed up with a talented collection of animators and designers to create visuals on the level of anything coming out of a major studio, and the score by Spanish composer Mastretta is a perfect companion, simple and evocative without overpowering the story. The whole film comes together with Tom Myers and David Hughes’ sound design, which is key in selling the final few moments of young Alma’s fate.

Alma will only be available online until December 31st, but Blaas and his team are considering distributing the film via iTunes or other sites, hoping that this initially free period will generate interest. “It’s still hard for the indie filmmaker to make a revenue,” Blaas said. And unless you can strike a deal with Sami Raimi or Peter Jackson, that goes double in the short film world.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Smart TV forecast: gigabit Wi-Fi in the living room
• Where the next-generation console fits in today’s video game market
• How consumer media will change in 2013

The company has announced a new customer, too: Cox Communications, the large cable company, which deployed Verdiem’s software on 15,000 of its corporate PCs in April, and has found savings of 40 percent, expecting a return on investment for the software within this year. Verdiem says the average return on investment is between eight and nine months, or about $30 to $60 per PC per year, and in June the company launched an energy dashboard to help customers view and verify the savings in real time.

Verdiem’s business model seems to be working for customers. In addition to corporate customers like Cox, Verdiem counts the city of Chicago (for almost 9,500 PCs) and the city of Honolulu (for almost 1,700 computers) among its users. The way it works is that each networked PC has the software installed, so an IT manager can centrally manage the energy consumption and sleep settings of the organization’s computers. For consumers, Verdiem also has a free tool called Edison (you can download it from the company’s web site), which beefs up a computer’s energy management tools.

Verdiem’s consumer software option seemed to be more marketing than anything else, although there is a need for better consumer PC energy management software. Verdiem VP of Marketing Allison Cornia explained to us last year, 90 percent of the world’s desktop computers have energy management settings disabled.

Microsoft is one of the big names investing in better energy management for upcoming Windows. Back in June, Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie said that the software giant has developed more sophisticated power management functions for its Windows 7 product, and called power management one of Windows 7’s “big investments.” Microsoft is also one of Verdiem’s technology partners, and I’d expect to see more work between these two in the future. If Microsoft wants to gain ground in the world of corporate and government networked PCs and energy management, it knows who to snap up.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Flash analysis: the Fisker debacle and its implications on investing, innovation, and government incentives
• Building energy management systems: overview and forecast
• Cleantech first-quarter 2013 analysis and outlook

Seattle-based Verdiem has been selling its flagship product — software called Surveyor that centrally monitors and manages the energy consumption of networked business computers — for a while. So we’re surprised that it is just now launching a central dashboard with easy-to-read visuals. But Verdiem tells us that customers were asking for an easy way to track and educate the rest of their company on the money saved and carbon emissions reduced due to the software. The energy dashboard will now be included for all new customers and for existing customers that have a monthly maintenance subscription.

Verdiem says large customers like the city of Chicago (for almost 9,500 PCs) and the city of Honolulu (for almost 1,700 computers) have been using the dashboard and Surveyor to cut energy consumption of PCs and to share the savings within the city government. I can imagine because the software takes about eight to nine months to provide a return on investment, being able to see the savings in real time is a good way to remind customers that they’ll soon be able to earn that investment back — and then some. Verdiem says its customers can save between $30 and $60 per PC per year. For cash-strapped cities (California is using it, too) those are important figures.

While Verdiem’s dashboard is less about changing the behavior of its software users (it’s centrally managed by the IT exec), right now, it’s more about an education and communication tool for the rest of the company. Eventually, though, the product could help a company quantify its carbon reductions for corporate sustainability reports and upcoming carbon regulation. While 66 percent of companies on the S&P don’t yet disclose adequate carbon emissions information, software that can help companies monitor and manage carbon emissions is set to be a hot market.

Venture capitalists have been investing in software that can cut energy consumption across the IT industry in droves. Verdiem is backed by Kleiner Perkins (which also invested in sustainability software startup Hara) as well as the NCD Investors, the Westly Group, Catamount Ventures, Falcon Partners and Phoenix Partners.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Flash analysis: the Fisker debacle and its implications on investing, innovation, and government incentives
• Building energy management systems: overview and forecast
• Cleantech first-quarter 2013 analysis and outlook

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Survey: How apps can solve photo management
• Social networks will displace business processes, not socialize them
• Sector RoadMap: Social customer service in 2013

The company says Edison is its answer to all those home PCs that don’t have the power settings enabled; Verdiem’s VP Marketing Allison Cornia said on a call this week, 90 percent of the world’s desktop computers have energy management settings disabled. The software itself is slick and easy-to-use, with settings to manage power for work hours and non work hours. The company is even planning to work with Carbon Rally to offer the opportunity to use that power (and carbon) saving data in a social network setting; the idea being you can see how green you are compared to your peer group.

But, as Cornia pointed on the call, about half of U.S. PC users don’t know what power management software is or how to use it. While Edison is pretty simple, convincing the average user to visit Verdiem’s web site and actively download the software will take a lot of convincing, i.e. marketing. For that, Verdiem is hoping to work with partners and eventually bundle the software with big OEM partners; HP already bundles an HP-branded version of Edison for business customers. Microsoft is also asking Windows PC users to download Edison to “augment” current PC power settings. Major deals like that could put the software on PCs much more quickly.

Above all, Edison seems like a savvy marketing move for Verdiem. It likely won’t make up a substantial part of company sales, but it’s good for getting the company’s name out there and likely wasn’t too expensive to build. And as John Skinner, co-chair of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative’s Marketing Workgroup said to us on a call, home desktop computers are the low hanging fruit — the CSCI is looking to reduce carbon emissions from computers 54 million tons by 2010 and calling for 10 million downloaded copies of Edison this year. With 2 percent of carbon emissions attributed to computing, small initiatives like Edison could make a real dent. That is, if the company can get the word out.

Verdiem does have some newly raised marketing money. In April the company closed a round of $12 million, led by NCD Investors (formerly Northgate Capital) and existing investors Kleiner Perkins, the Westly Group, Catamount Ventures, Falcon Partners and Phoenix Partners. Final thought: We want a Mac version.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Flash analysis: the Fisker debacle and its implications on investing, innovation, and government incentives
• Cleantech venture capital heads east
• Building energy management systems: overview and forecast