Partners in the Framework 7 CASAGRAS project also urge that European Centres for the IoT and automatic identification and data capture should be established to help business grasp the opportunities they offer. Delegates from 19 countries attended the project’s final conference in London where eight key recommendations were made. These, it was said, would help ensure an ordered development of the IoT on a global basis with maximum business and social benefits. Ian G. Smith of AIM UK, co-ordinator of CASAGRAS, said : “Our project work has proved without doubt that there is the need and will for international co-operation. China, Japan, Korea and the USA are on board. Europe has taken the lead and now needs to drive the initiative as a truly global partnership.” The report’s eight main recommendations are: • The establishment of an overarching, internationally-partnered organisational platform to help steer the IoT development. These partners should represent a cross section of interest including governmental and standards agencies, industry, business and academe. • The development and delivery of a strategic migration plan for developing an IoT from a minimalist model to a more inclusive model, including identity management and resolver techniques. • The development of a universal or federated data capture appliance protocol to accommodate migratory inclusion of object-connectable technologies. • The development of an architectural platform for supporting and demonstrating IoT application and services, and for addressing problems associated with IoT development, possibly based upon the establishment of a generic top-level Internet domain. • The development of the rules of governance of the IoT with attention to social and economic issues including privacy and security. • The initiation of application and service pilot studies and demonstrators, particularly with respect to pathway process applications exploiting extended process functionality and scalable sensor-network applications. • International co-operation on pilot developments and promotional initiatives directed at enhancing inclusion of national bodies in co-operative developments. • The establishment and pursuance of a strategic research and development roadmap for IoT development, drawing upon the findings of the CERP-IoT group report, Internet of Things Strategic Research Roadmap (2009). In addition, the CASAGRAS partners also identified a need to: • Agree a definition of the Internet of Things that can be used as a popular point of reference. • Reduce the number of overlapping and potentially conflicting projects. • Undertake major education, training and awareness programmes to explain the IoT. • Set up key European centres or academies for AIDC and the IoT. Ian Smith added: “Extending the number of international partners and gaining agreement on the structural, governance and foundational features will help to better define and accommodate the developments on the IoT.” Printed copies of the CASAGRAS Project Report are available free by emailing andrewc@aimuk.org www.rfidglobal.eu (PDF download)