The open IoT standards organisation establishes new forum dedicated to European market needs, regulations, events and more.
Membership is open to all Zigbee Alliance participants and promoters. The group is chaired by Alliance Board Member and IoT Architect Ulf Axelsson of IKEA Home smart. It is hoped the Europe Interest Group will bring a European voice more formally into the standards work within the Alliance.
The Europe Interest Group is to operate under the supervision of the Zigbee Alliance Board of Directors.
The tasks in hand:
* Providing input to the Board regarding European technology needs and current events;
* Collecting, capturing and sharing ongoing information about EU regulation and standards to the Working Groups within the Alliance to aid in the development of global, open IoT standards;
* Sharing regular Project CHIP [connect home over IP) updates with EU member companies;
* Facilitating discussions around Project CHIP interoperability across Europe while providing insight to shape future endeavours for the European landscape;
* Coordinating and engaging with Alliance marketing teams to support EU events and speaker programmes.
EU perspective
“I am looking forward to collaborating on new levels with fellow Alliance companies from an EU perspective, and fostering more regular interaction between our members that are interested and invested in the European residential or commercial IoT markets,” said Axelsson. ‘“We are creating a structure to provide better visibility into the important developments happening across the Zigbee Alliance, and our Europe Interest Group provides an efficient avenue for more two-way dialogue and information exchange between regions, countries, companies and individuals all working toward the same technology goals.”
“The formation of this European-centric group will take Alliance-wide cooperation and communication to new levels, which is essential as our game-changing Project CHIP initiative comes into focus and to the market in early 2021, and we continue to drive openness and interoperability through our flagship Zigbee standards,” said Bruno Vulcano, R&D Manager at Legrand and Chairman of the Board for the Zigbee Alliance. “We’re fortunate to have Ulf of IKEA Home smart leading this charge as he brings an ideal blend of technical experience, regional expertise and peer leadership to this role.”