First understand "What is happening?"

OASIS oBIX Technical Committee Forms to Advance Web Services Standard for Building Management Industry

http://www.automatedbuildings.com/releases/jul04/oasis.htm

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Boston, MA, USA; 21 June 2004 -- International standards consortium, OASIS, announced plans to advance oBIX (Open Building Information Xchange), a Web services implementation for the building management and controls industry. The new OASIS oBIX Technical Committee will define a standard method to enable mechanical and electrical systems in facilities and buildings to communicate with enterprise applications. oBIX is an example of the growing trend of vertical industries organizing within OASIS to develop standards that leverage Web services methods for their specific industry needs.

oBIX will be applicable to a wide variety of smart systems embedded in facilities, such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), elevators, laboratory equipment, life/safety systems, access control, intruder detection, audio visual event management, closed circuit television monitoring, and many others. oBIX will also provide access to information from sensing devices that are not typically part of control systems, delivering real-time access to sensors that measure or monitor the physical space in a facility, including environmental sensing, electrical panels, and power meters.

"Currently, there is no easy way for IT departments to integrate their enterprise systems with those that run their buildings. Yet facilities represent the largest physical asset most companies have. Using Web services to enhance the effectiveness of building control systems promises to have an enormous impact on an organization's bottom line," said Ron Zimmer, President & CEO of the Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA). oBIX was originally established as a working group within CABA, which will continue its involvement through participation in OASIS.

For more http://www.oasis-open.org/news/oasis_news_06_21_04.php

Then "Who is making it happen?"

http://www.automatedbuildings.com/news/jun04/interviews/considine.htm

Tridium Takes Major Role in OASIS’ oBIX Technical Committee See news briefs

This page lists the OASIS members currently on this TC's membership roster. People with the role of Member, TC Chair, or Secretary are voting members of the TC. Prospective Members will become voting members after attending the first meeting of the TC or by completing a probationary period.

The OASIS oBIX Technical Committee is made up of users and vendors from all sectors of the building controls market, including the security, HVAC, building automation, open protocol, and IT disciplines. Current members are listed at http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/membership.php?wg_abbrev=obix, however, participation remains open to all organizations and individuals. OASIS also offers a mechanism for public comment on the work. The Technical Committee plans to prioritize oBIX development based on input from the community and particularly seeks use scenarios from those managing systems for large office buildings, universities, hospitals, etc.

"We intend to work with control protocols such as LonTalk (now known as ANSI/EIA/CEA709.1) and BACnet (ASHRAE/ANSI 135-2001, ISO 16484-5) so that oBIX can become the vehicle to take building systems to the TCP/IP layer in a consistent manner for the benefit of the enterprise. oBIX will also make it possible to integrate the many legacy proprietary control and monitoring systems in use today as well as future, native TCP/IP control systems," noted Paul Ehrlich of Trane, convener of the OASIS oBIX Technical Committee.

As well as "Where will it happen?"

From http://www.obix.org web site at these industry events.

And finally "How can I get involved?"

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=obix

http://www.builtalk.com/group-org.htm  The oBIX group is made up several working groups in different areas related to the development process. To be a part of any of the working groups go to the discussion boards or contact the Task Group Leader.

Please join me in giving your full support to this worthwhile industry effort to define a standard method to enable mechanical and electrical systems in facilities and buildings to communicate with enterprise applications.

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