W3C Day in Spain: Web of Things to boost industrial productivity

Recently the W3C Spanish Office organized the W3C Day in Spain, an annual conference held in different cities across Spain. The objective of this event is facilitating a collaborative  environment that enables local stakeholders to share their knowledge on ICTs. This W3C Day is considered as one of the major forums in Spain to discuss about the future of Web technologies in industry, academia, public sector, and the society in general.

Dave Raggett during his talk at W3C Day in Spain 2016

This 13^rd edition, hosted by CTIC Technology Centre in Gijón (Spain), was focused on Web of Things and its application on the industry, aiming at raising awareness about the new technologies related to IoT to boost the concept of Industry 4.0 in Spain. The event gathered together over 220 experts who interacted with the speakers during five dynamic panels. Most of the attendees came from Spain, although there were a few international representatives from Latin American and Eastern European countries.

The agenda of the event was full of high level speakers from Spanish leading corporations, national government or prestigious universities. All the keynotes and panels were focused on the evolution of the Internet and the Web towards the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm, framed in the potential interest for the industry. Experts' speeches addressed the topics from a high perspective, introducing challenges and opportunities in their sectors.

The first keynote speaker was Szymon Lewandowski (Policy Officer at DG CONNECT, European Commission), who presented the efforts of the European Commission in order to evolve industry towards a Digital Single Market. His speech was clear and concise, encouraging companies to evolve their strategies by the right use of data and the adoption of Web and Internet standards.

Dave Raggett (W3C Web of Things) presented the W3C's work in this new promising concept that will solve the problem of interoperability in the IoT. His talk, titled 'Web of Things: Web standards to bridge the IoT silos’, was a good motivation to start specific discussions on different subtopics such as: interoperability, security, big data, cloud computing, and Industry 4.0 strategies.

Panelists during the W3C Day in Spain 2016

During a full day, keynote speakers and panelists discussed how open standards could increase productivity, optimize business processes, and avoid silos of things (and information). This event served as a good starting point for the Spanish industry to change their minds towards the Web of Things. We are already thinking about what topics to discuss next year.

Interested in learning more? Read a complete report about the W3C Day in Spain 2016 and join the W3C Web of Things Interest Group if you want to make (and change) the rules for a better Internet ecosystem.