The Open Interconnect Consortium formed to promote interoperability...

interoperability in PCs, smartphones, tablets, home appliances and “new wearable form factors” by establishing a specification, an open source implementation and a certification program for wirelessly connecting devices, it said. “The first open source code will target the specific requirements for smart home and office solutions, with more use case scenarios to follow.” Such open choice specs “could make it simple to remotely control and receive notifications from smart home appliances or enterprise devices using securely provisioned smartphones, tablets or PCs,” it said. Consortium members want to “provide secure and reliable device discovery and connectivity” across multiple operating systems and platforms, including iOS, Android, Linux, Tizen and “other real time operating systems,” it said. There are “multiple proposals and forums driving different approaches” to interoperability, “but no single solution addresses the majority of key requirements,” it said. “We need industry consolidation around a common, interoperable approach,” and a broad industry consensus “to create a scalable solution,” it said. More companies are expected to join the consortium in the coming months, it said. Though the six companies listed are founding members, the consortium’s “organizational structure is not yet formalized,” it said. It said it soon will announce more details, including “membership levels and bylaws.”