AIOTI, ISO/IEC JTC1, ETSI, oneM2M and W3C Collaborate on Two Joint White Papers on Semantic Interoperability Targeting Developers and Standardization Engineers

Cross-organization expert group works together on accelerating adoption of semantic technologies in IoT.

AIOTI today announced its collaborative role in the publication of two joint white papers on semantic interoperability entitled Semantic IoT Solutions - A Developer Perspective and Towards semantic interoperability standards based on ontologies in conjunction with organizations closely tied to the advancement of the IoT ecosystem.

Patrick Guillemin and Georgios Karagiannis, co-chairs of AIOTI WG03 say, “AIOTI WG3 has been a strong contributor to the conversation around semantic interoperability and these two white papers place emphasis on this key topic, as well as on the desire to develop a common approach. WG3 is proud to propose a unique place where AIOTI and IoT semantic interoperability experts from industry, SDOs, alliances, OSS, research and innovation ... can freely contribute and discuss.”

“ISO/IEC JTC1/SC41 is currently working on the development of the ISO/IEC 21823-3 standard on semantic interoperability. Thanks to the liaison between AIOTI and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC41, preliminary versions of the two white papers have been provided to ISO/IEC JTC1/SC41. These contributions, made by AIOTI semantic interoperability group experts have helped us to significantly advance the development of ISO/IEC 21823-3” said Antonio Kung, co-author. 

Dr. Marc Girod-Genet, ETSI semantic modelling/interoperability researcher and standardization (SmartBAN, eHealth and SmartM2M/SAREF) expert says “Interoperability is one key problem of IoT. The IoT ecosystem is still so fragmented that semantic interoperability is only possible if all actors share the same understanding/vision of it and cooperate in a common workspace for coming up with unified solutions. As a co-author, I am proud to participate in these common developments that are open and global.”

Franck Boissière, Policy Officer in the European Commission, said: “This type of joint white paper is exactly what we had in mind when we spearheaded the concept of cooperation and convergence between Standard Development Organizations in the 2017 Rolling Plan on ICT Standardization. The pragmatic objectives of these two documents are key to moving the concepts of semantic interoperability out of the research labs to become a reality in the European economy and society. It will help industry and developers introduce one of the most powerful mechanisms for building the future IoT eco-systems.”

The documents are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License so that content can be freely shared and adapted provided users follow the agreed upon guidelines. The joint white papers have been published on ResearchGate and can be referenced as DOIs 10.13140/RG.2.2.16339.53286 and 10.13140/RG.2.2.26825.29282 respectively.

The editor of the white papers, Martin Bauer, says, "Following the success of our earlier white paper on Semantic Interoperability for the Web of Things, our group of experts, affiliated to a variety of different organizations, continues to support and accelerate the uptake of semantic technologies.

We identified two groups that are vital to the successful adoption of semantics – developers and standardization engineers. Developers often lack the background, so the white paper gives them a step-by-step introduction on how to develop semantic systems. Standardization engineers can profit from the group’s experience on developing ontologies, explaining how ontology experts and domain experts have to work together to develop ontology-based semantic standards."

AIOTI
The Alliance for Internet of Things Innovation (AIOTI) was initiated by the European Commission in 2015, with the aim of strengthening the dialogue and interaction among Internet of Things (IoT) stakeholders in Europe, and contributing to the creation of a dynamic European IoT ecosystem to speed up the take-up of IoT. Other objectives of the Alliance include fostering experimentation, replication, and deployment of IoT and supporting convergence and interoperability of IoT standards; gathering evidence on market obstacles for IoT deployment; and mapping and bridging global, EU, and member states' IoT innovation activities. For more information see https://aioti.eu/

ETSI
ETSI provides members with an open and inclusive environment to support the development, ratification and testing of globally applicable standards for ICT systems and services across all sectors of industry and society. We are a not-for-profit body with more than 850 member organizations worldwide, drawn from 65 countries and five continents. Members comprise a diversified pool of large and small private companies, research entities, academia, government and public organizations. ETSI is officially recognized by the EU as a European Standards Organization (ESO). For more information please visit us at: www.etsi.org/

ISO/IEC JTC1 – SC41
ISO/IEC JTC1 is a joint committee of ISO and IEC created in 1987 with the mandate to elaborate standards on IT. ISO/IEC JTC1/SC41, Internet of things and related technologies was created in 2016.

It serves as the focus and proponent for JTC 1's standardization programme on the Internet of Things and related technologies, including Sensor Networks and Wearables technologies. It further provides guidance to JTC 1, IEC, ISO and other entities developing Internet of Things related applications. It has published ISO/IEC 30141 Internet of things (IoT) - reference architecture in 2018, as well as ISO/IEC 20924 Information technology — Internet of Things (IoT) — Vocabulary.

oneM2M
oneM2M is the global standards initiative that covers requirements, architecture, API specifications, security solutions and interoperability for Machine-to-Machine and IoT technologies. oneM2M was formed in 2012 and consists of eight of the world's preeminent standards development organizations: ARIB (Japan), ATIS (U.S.), CCSA (China), ETSI (Europe), TIA (U.S.), TSDSI (India), TTA (Korea), and TTC (Japan), together with industry fora or consortia (GlobalPlatform) and over 200 member organizations. oneM2M specifications provide a framework to support applications and services such as the smart grid, connected car, home automation, public safety, and health.

oneM2M actively encourages industry associations and forums with specific application requirements to participate in oneM2M, in order to ensure that the solutions developed support their specific needs. For more information, including how to join and participate in oneM2M, see: www.onem2m.org.

W3C
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. Led by Web inventor and Director Tim Berners-Lee and CEO Jeffrey Jaffe, W3C's mission is to lead the Web to its full potential. Over 400 organizations are Members of the Consortium. For more information see www.w3.org.