Standards for IoT - Live Webchat
The Guardian is hosting a live webchat to discuss the future of standards for IoT to be held at 1pm on 28 July, discussing privacy and interoperability issues.&nbsp;
The kind of format war familiar to most of us is the battle for the territory beneath our televisions. As we know from the years-long rivalries between Betamax and VHS and then Bluray and HD DVD, they are grizzly affairs that often end in tears, shed over once cutting-edge, now defunct products.

A format war in the internet of things could be even more stifling, given its premise to connect currently “dumb” objects to each other. Some predict, however, that it would be a foregone conclusion if industry leaders bypass industry standards for their own ecosystems.

If the so called internet of silos is going to transform into the internet of things and be fully interoperable, most industry insiders accept that there needs to be at least a framework for the basic set of interfaces between objects.

The method for establishing a framework and standards, and what they should contain are much contested topics. There are scores of groups devoted to their creation, which discuss not just the technical composition of an interoperable internet of things, but also the wide-ranging ethical implications.

A panel of industry experts will be coming together from 1:00-2:30pm (BST) on 28 July to discuss the big questions about standards, including:

How do we avoid big tech companies from siloing their IoT offerings?

What role does government have to play in the development of standards?

Should standards enforce a centralised or decentralised internet of things?

How can standards protect consumers from cybersecurity breaches?

How can standards protect consumers’ privacy?

Are standards essential or are there other ways of ensuring interoperability?

Panel

David Dunn, CEO, Sunderland Software City

David is the CEO of Sunderland Software City, an organisation that supports the software sector to grow across the North East of England. He is specifically focusing on working with companies in the area that focus on the ‘controlled delivery of data’ between parties as this the power to unleash economic growth across all sectors.

Hugo Fiennes, co-founder & CEO, Electric Imp

Hugo is the co-founder & CEO of Electric Imp, an IoT platform company. In previous lives he managed the iPhone hardware team for the first four phones and designed the hardware for the first Nest thermostat.

Anna Guest, director of training services, 5i

Anna is a specialist in technology go-to-market and B2B sales strategy and training. She is passionate about leveraging technology for business outcomes.

Maria Hernandez, Internet of Everything sales lead, Cisco UK & Ireland

Maria is responsible for ensuring Cisco brings to the UK market the business and social benefits that the Internet of Everything can offer, and is also responsible for branding Cisco as a thought leader in IoE.

Mark Lee, chief commercial officer, Intamac

Mark has a successful track record in the telecoms and technology sectors spanning two decades. He has been working at the forefront of IoT for over three years, as the chief commercial officer for Intamac systems, an enabler of IoT.

Richard Parker, Founder & CEO, Altitude Angel

Richard has a background in software engineering and consultancy. More recently, he quit his day job at one of the world’s leading blue-chip software companies and founded Altitude Angel to create The Internet of Flying Things™ – a platform that supports the safe integration of ‘drones’ into National Airspace on a global scale.

Vlad Trifa, co-founder and VP of research and development, EVRYTHNG

In addition to his role at EVRYTHNG, Vlad is a co-founder of WebofThings.org and has a Ph.D. in computer science from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) and a M.Sc. in computer science with a concentration in robotics and machine learning from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).

This live discussion takes places in the comments section below. To take part, sign in (or sign up) as a Guardian comments user and submit your question or query below. You can post something now for the panel to pick up on the day or join us live.



This live Q&A is provided by Cisco, sponsors of the Guardian Media & Tech Network’s connected world hub