Open Interconnect Consortium Names Board Leadership and 27 New Member Companies

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Oct 02, 2014, 11:00 ET

Industry leaders from a broad range of markets join together to connect the Internet of Things

PORTLAND, Ore., Oct. 2, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Open Interconnect Consortium, Inc. (OIC) today announced the appointment of its board of directors and 27 new member companies for a total of 32 members. With a focus on openness and participation, industry leaders from Cisco Systems Inc., Intel Corporation, MediaTek and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. are working together to define the connectivity requirements to improve interoperability between the billions of devices making up the Internet of Things (IoT).

Open Interconnect Consortium logo (PRNewsFoto/Open Interconnect Consortium)

Since Atmel, Dell, Intel, Samsung Electronics and Wind River founded the OIC in July, 27 new member companies have committed to establishing a standard with clear licensing terms to address current IoT challenges. New member companies include Acer, ActnerLab, Allion, Aepona, Cisco, Cryptosoft Ltd, Eyeball Networks, Global Channel Resource, Gluu, IIOT Foundation, InFocus, Laplink Software, Mashery, McAfee, MediaTek, Metago, NewAer, Nitero, OSS Nokalva Inc., Realtek Semiconductor Corp., Remo Software, Roost, SmartThings, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Thug Design, VMC and Zula.

The OIC board of directors is drawn from companies that span a broad range of industry vertical segments including smart home and office solutions, consumer appliances and devices, telecommunications, enterprise technology and more. This diverse technology leadership will help ensure OIC specifications and open source implementations foster product designs that intelligently, reliably and securely manage and exchange information regardless of form factor, operating system or service provider.

"We are following a proven path of innovation with the OIC, by encouraging industry-wide collaboration, and our board members represent our commitment to provide a standard across a broad range of market sectors facing challenges from emerging IoT technology trends," said Jong-Deok Choi, executive vice president and deputy head of Software R&D Center, Samsung Electronics and OIC president. "Our leadership and growing membership will create a single standard to solve connectivity and interoperability challenges in order to support the billions of connected devices coming online."

Open Interconnect Consortium's board of directors includes:

President: Jong-Deok Choi, executive vice president and deputy head of Software R&D Center, Samsung Electronics
Vice President: Imad Sousou, vice president, Software and Services Group and general manager, Intel Open Source Technology Center, Intel Corporation
Secretary: Bernard Shung, general manager, new business development, MediaTek
Treasurer: Kip Compton, vice president, IoT Systems and Software Group, Cisco

For more information, visit www.openinterconnect.org and follow the OIC on Twitter, @ointerconnect

About Open Interconnect Consortium
The Open Interconnect Consortium, a Delaware non-profit corporation, is being founded by leading technology companies with the goal of defining the connectivity requirements and ensuring interoperability of the billions of devices that will make up the emerging Internet of Things (IoT). To learn more, visit
www.openinterconnect.org or email [email protected].

All trademarks included are the property of their respective owners.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Owen Sexton
OIC Public Relations
[email protected]

Supporting Companies	Executive Quote
ActnerLab	Michael Chong, Managing Partner, ActnerLab "ActnerLab is pleased to join the Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC) as a startup accelerator that helps hardware startups establish their initial step on the market and develop into global businesses successfully. We're focusing on emerging hardware innovation areas like the Internet of Things, connected car, health care, wearables and human interface which can be contributed to OIC's activity."
Eyeball Networks	Chris Piche, CEO, Eyeball Networks "Eyeball Networks is pleased to join the Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC), with other industry leaders, to define device-to-device connectivity requirements among the billions of devices that make up the Internet of Things. As the leading provider of secure, guaranteed connectivity solutions, it's critical we are a part of OIC to develop open standards that will help drive adoption of secure device-to-device connectivity."
Cisco	Kip Compton, vice president, IoT Systems & Software Group, Cisco "Cisco sees a 19.6 trillion dollar opportunity in industrial markets and public sector verticals when we use the Internet to create connections between people, process, data and things. Open standards and interoperability are key in growing this vision and Cisco is working with industry-leading partners, customers, standards organizations and consortia, such as the OIC, to achieve the full potential of the Internet of Everything."
Cryptosoft	Jon Penney, CTO, Cryptosoft "The broad acceptance by consumers and the industry will require a simple and open framework that assures secure interoperability of data flows between the billions of devices anticipated to make up the Internet of Things. We are pleased to join the Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC), with other industry leaders, to help define device connectivity requirements that will help drive interoperability, innovation and adoption."
IIOT Foundation	Akira Tsuge, Secretary General, IIOT Foundation "IIOT Foundation is pleased to join the Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC), with other industry leaders, to define device-to-device connectivity requirements to improve interoperability among the billions of devices that make up the Internet of Things. As a leading provider of interoperability test-bed, it's critical we are a part of OIC to develop open standards that will help drive innovation in international interoperability testing."
InFocus	Raymond Yu, president, InFocus "With the sheer volume of Internet-connected devices today and inevitable growth in the future, outlining device connectivity standards is critical for improving product interoperability. As the pioneer of visual collaboration solutions, InFocus looks forward to adding our 30 years of experience and expertise to the Open Interconnect Consortium to help develop open requirements that will create a better overall experience for end users and developers."
Metago	Kevin Payne, CEO, Metago "Metago is excited to be a part of the new Open Interconnect Consortium. Our goal is to help users be able to find, manage, and share their digital data between any devices, both their own devices and their friends devices. The OIC's goal of helping all devices on the Internet connect and communicate with each other fits perfectly with our vision. We think the whole Internet and therefore the whole world will benefit from the work that is being done by the OIC and we are grateful to be a part of that."
Nitero	Pat Kelly, CEO, Nitero "New connectivity options will play a key role in the growth of the Internet of Things, determining how billions of devices will interoperate in the future. WiGig is the only connectivity solution that can deliver multi-gigabit throughput for IoT applications that require high bandwidth. As a leader in high performance, low power 60GHz Wi-Fi, Nitero is pleased to join the Open Interconnect Consortium and contribute our WiGig expertise to the development of a common connectivity standard."
Thug Design	Damon Sullivan, CEO, Thug Design "Thug Design is pleased to join the Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC) to not just help define industry standards that connect billions of devices but to also enable meaningful experiences through the devices that connect people together. We believe OIC is exactly what the industry as a whole needs to make the leap to next the paradigm shift of not just connecting devices, but connecting people. From our core Thug is a user experience driven, research-based design firm and feel we can bring much to the table for the next generation of interconnected experiences."
VMC	Doug Dorweiler, Director of Technology Solutions and Services, VMC "VMC is thrilled to be the first service provider invited to participate in the Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC). We embrace the opportunity to apply our expertise in hardware and software quality assurance into the world of connected devices."
Samsung Electronics	Jong-Deok Choi, OIC president and executive vice president & deputy head of Software R&D Center, Samsung Electronics "Samsung welcomes our newest Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC) members to help usher in a new era of seamless and scalable connectivity for the billions of devices that make up the Internet of Things. We believe an interoperable communication standard, that works across all consumer electronics device categories, is important not only to our business and customers, but critical to the growth of the entire industry."