Collaboration rules the technical world. A professor who influenced me greatly was ex-CIA (ex?). He would proclaim in our international politics classes during the height of the Cold War that politicians might want to close borders, but scientists would never allow it. “Scientists want to publish their findings,” he would say, “so they will publish and leave out a step in the mathematical proof. It would get past censors, but fellow scientists around the world would figure out the missing steps.”
Our world today is rife with politicians trying to close borders. No, it’s not only Trump in America.
Given the political times, I’m encouraged by all the technology collaboration I see. Last week I posted a year end update by Tom Burke of the OPC Foundation highlighting his work in collaborating with other standards bodies. I have been working with MIMOSA (and recently elected Chief Marketing Officer). This organization has also been working with a variety of organizations.
Last week came news of another collaboration. The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC), the global, member-supported organization that promotes the accelerated growth of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT).Under the agreement, the IIC and CAICT will work together to help ensure interoperability for the industrial Internet in China.
The agreement is one of a number of agreements made by the IIC’s newly formed Liaison Working Group.
Joint activities between the IIC and CAICT will include:
- Identifying and sharing best practices
- Collaborating on testbeds and research and development projects
- Realizing interoperability by harmonizing architecture and other elements
- Collaborating on standardization
“We look forward to working with the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology to help further the development of the industrial Internet throughout China,” said Wael William Diab, Chair, IIC Liaison Working Group and Senior Director, Huawei. “We’re especially excited about joint activity on testbeds and research and development projects that will help advance the adoption of the industrial internet.”
“We highly value the cooperation between CAICT and the IIC,” said Mr. Xiaohui YU, CTO of CAICT. “The collaboration with the IIC will help establish tight relationships between the IIC and Chinese entities and organizations, such as the AII Alliance, and will develop, facilitate and enhance the industrial Internet.”
The Liaison Working Group is the gateway for formal relationships with standards and open-source organizations, consortia, alliances, certification and testing bodies and government entities/agencies.
China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) is a research academy under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology with over 2,400 employees. A specialized think-tank for the government, and an innovation and development platform for the industry, CAICT holds a service portfolio that covers the areas of information and communication technology, the integration of ICT and industries, such as 5G, Internet IoT and industrial Internet, cloud computing, big data, Intelligent manufacturing etc.
As a leading think-tank and platform in ICT field of China, it contributes to the development and innovation of the country and the ICT industry by providing support and services in terms of national strategies, plans, policies, standards, technology labs, testing and certification etc. CAICT is the national core supporting organization for industrial Internet, intelligent manufacturing and Internet relevant actions to the Chinese government, and is involved in the drafting of the “Internet+ action plan,” “Made in China 2025,”and other national strategies and guidance on IoT, Cloud computing, big data and Broadband China, etc. CAICT is currently the leading organization to promote the development of industrial Internet of China.
The Industrial Internet Consortium is a global, member-supported, organization that promotes the accelerated growth of the Industrial Internet of Things by coordinating ecosystem initiatives to securely connect, control and integrate assets and systems of assets with people, processes and data using common architectures, interoperability and open standards to deliver transformational business and societal outcomes across industries and public infrastructure. The Industrial Internet Consortium is managed by the Object Management Group (OMG).
