Open Platform 3.0™ Forum
Objective of Meeting
The Open Platform 3.0 Forum ran a series of events as part of The Open Group Houston 2018 event, including a presentation track for attendees, a Workshop on the Internet of Things open to the public, and a Brand Identity Workshop for Forum members only. The objectives of the track presentations and IoT Workshop were to present the work of the Forum, highlight the work of our active participants, and to evangelize our standards to the wider world. The Brand Identity Workshop aimed to help us to identify our target audiences and to refine our messaging.
Summary
Track Presentations
The Open Platform 3.0 Forum delivered two excellent presentations (see Plenary Report).
Michael Flores delivered a presentation that answered the question “What Happens when you Combine AI, DevOps, and Semantic Interoperability?”. As he explained, while the popularity and power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasing, this technology is only the latest in a series of paradigm shifts. From a human perspective, the emergence of AI will require new roles in AI model creation and maintenance, but to be impactful, it will also need people who can communicate what AI can do. From the technological point of view, AI systems would develop faster and perform better if they were able to communicate and learn from each other. This is a semantic interoperability problem, which Open Platform 3.0 standards such as O-DEF™, O-MI, and O-DF could solve by providing a common data language.
Don Brancato presented “Big Data Capabilities in OT-IT”, in which he drew on his experience to explain the similarities and differences of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Industrial Internet of Things (the IIoT), and how these technologies can be used to solve global commercial and humanitarian problems. These include the braking system in the new BMW2020 model, which uses connected devices in place of the more traditional mechanical braking cable; rain prediction systems in Kenya; and emergency communications networks in Nepal.
IoT Workshop
As a result of advertising through the Houston event registration page, The Open Group and Open Platform 3.0 Twitter feeds, and the Open Platform 3.0 Community of Interest on LinkedIn, the IoT Workshop attracted around 50 registrations. Of these, nearly 40 people attended to learn more about the IoT and the standards we have created. (See Plenary Report.)
Brand Identity Workshop
In lieu of a standards development meeting, our members worked with The Open Group Marketing Team to revise the brand identity of the Forum. The Marketing Team led us through a series of brainstorming and brand mapping exercises in which we were able to identify key audiences and the benefits and value propositions that we can offer to them.
Outputs
Track Presentations
The track presentations by Michael Flores and Don Brancato were recorded, and in the coming weeks will be posted in our LinkedIn Group, the Open Platform 3.0 Community of Interest, which we welcome you to join.
IoT Workshop
The Workshop provided the opportunity to increase our presence within three groups:
- Delegates who attended the event
- Representatives of companies which did not attend the event
- Individuals and entrepreneurs within the local IoT community
The attendees understood the importance of our work, and showed an interest in adoption and Forum participation.
Invites were sent to attendees to join our LinkedIn Group page; so far, 11 have joined, taking our total group membership to 262. All feedback received so far has been positive, and we will be looking to develop and rerun the event in the near future.
Brand Identity Workshop
The team made an excellent start in the Brand Identity Workshop, but we will have to continue this activity. The material produced so far, in the form of personas, delivered benefits, and value propositions, will be used to develop the messaging of the Forum and shape our future offering. The Forum members would like to thank The Open Group Marketing Team for supporting and facilitating this important process.
Next Steps
As a Forum, we are keen to promote the work of our active participants and evangelize our standards, in addition to inviting ideas from outside. In future events, we will encourage our active members to submit presentation proposals, and arrange the schedules so that they can deliver at least one of the track presentations.
We will revise our IoT Workshop presentations, incorporating more material from the bIoTope project, and including more interactive group activities. This will be prepared in anticipation of re-running the workshops in future events. The planned Dublin and Amsterdam events may be the best options for these, since Professor Kary Främling, our resident IoT expert and link to the bIoTope project, and his team of researchers, will be more able to attend the European events.
While face-to-face workshops are the gold standard for Brand Identity Workshops, we will work with The Open Group Marketing Team to find an alternative method, possibly as part of our webex meetings or perhaps as additional webex meetings, so that we can continue to develop our brand identity, while also preserving our face-to-face member meeting time for standards development discussions.
Our weekly webex meetings will continue; for the whole Forum, and for our Work Groups on the Internet of Things, Semantic Interoperability, and Big Data. Members are invited to join us for these meetings. To get more involved if you are already a member of the Forum please feel free to come along, or contact the Forum Director, Michelle Supper (m.supper@opengroup.org) for more details and membership information.