Each day seems to usher in new and exciting developments in the world of the Internet of Things (IoT). Recently, the GENIVI Alliance and the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) announced a liaison agreement wherein the two organizations will work to co-develop open standards for vehicle connectivity and vehicle data exchange. These open standards will include a unified model for secure discovery and exchange of information between smart homes, connected cars, and other IoT devices.

According to the press release, the joint effort will “attempt to address end-to-end security challenges and with the aim of becoming the basis for a growing number of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) solutions.”

As part of this joint effort, GENIVI and OCF will work closely with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Automotive Working Group. This collaboration with WC3, an affirming partner of the OpenStand principles and leading advocacy group for web standards, will expose vehicle data to web application developers.

In the world of IoT, there are billions of connected devices, from phones to computers to vehicles and beyond. These devices should ideally be able to have seamless communication with each other regardless of manufacturer, operating system, chipset or physical transport. To that end, the OCF is “creating a specification and sponsoring an open source project to make this possible. OCF will unlock the massive opportunity in the IoT market, accelerate industry innovation and help developers and companies create solutions that map to a single open specification. OCF will help ensure secure interoperability for consumers, business, and industry.” By joining with GENIVI, a non-profit organization making large strides towards broad adoption of open source, In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) software is working towards providing open technology for the connected car. This collaboration is helping both organization make even greater progress in open standards within IoT.

As regular readers of this blog know, we put out a call to all IoT Alliances and Consortia to support the mission of OpenStand and adopt and embrace our Principles. We believe that the future of the IoT needs to embrace these Principles, not only for their benefit, but for the benefit of humanity. There are many Alliances and Consortia formed around the IoT and we ask that they join the OpenStand movement and its Partners in our stand as we embrace a modern paradigm for standards where the economics of global markets, fueled by technological advancements, drive global deployment of standards regardless of their formal status.

The level of progress we will see through this type of agreement is putting us in exactly the right direction.

What do you think about this collaborative effort in IoT? How do you see it benefitting, or not benefitting, IoT development?