Everyone seems to agree that the home of the future will be a place of interconnected devices, doing their jobs with less and less human input. But how will that happen? The players who have an interest in creating such an environment—from utilities to appliance makers to entertainment companies to, let’s not forget them, actual home buyers—have very different perspectives and needs. The idea of an Internet of Things is that a convergent network can serve them all by providing common ways of communicating and a more open pathway to future innovation. And that’s why the Internet of Things is a primary focus of IEEE’s Corporate Advisory Group (CAG) right now.

“IEEE’s role in the development of the Internet of Things isn’t just to be a platform,” says Oleg Logvinov of STMicroelectronics and a member of the CAG. “It’s really about creating a collaborative environment. It’s about taking on the role of a champion, creating links between groups and fostering regional and industry collaborations.”

To serve that function, IEEE has been putting on a series of events around the world dedicated to educating stakeholders on ways in which standards development is helping make the Internet of Things a reality, with the hopes of drawing more of them into the process and into fruitful collaborations.

The most recent one, in Milan on 13 November, brought together innovators from companies such as STMicroelectronics, Bouygues Telecom, ABI Research, the SIM Alliance and Huawei to talk about telecom perspectives on IOT, the smart home, end-to-end security and IEEE as a standards platform.

“The point of Milan was to change opinions, and to create new linkages,” said Logvinov. “There’s a need for an unbiased platform, and these IEEE events are providing it.” Watch for future workshops in 2013, in Shenzen in the spring and on the West Coast in the fall.