On October 3rd and 4th, I was buried deep in the DEEP, attending Cybereason's excellent DEEP 2018 conference on cybersecurity in downtown Boston. Focused on supporting "the defenders" — that is, people defending networks and users from unscrupulous "hackers" —this conference included excellent overviews of the technical means of protecting systems. Although it was understandably vendor-focused, it was good to catch up with the current thinking in cybersecurity and how it relates both to OMG® security standards and the Industrial Internet Consortium® (IIC™) Security Framework.
The following week saw a very busy few days in Japan, starting with STSforum, the Science, Technology and Society Forum in Kyoto. The 15th edition of this excellent conference is still run by Omi san with the explicit support (and keynote) by Japan's Prime Minister Abe. Current issues covered included: Internet of Things adoption, the impact of robotics and artificial intelligence on society, gene splicing and genetically-modified organisms and the like. The 2,000 to 3,000 attendees, including Nobel laureates, science ministers from around the globe, corporate executives and the like, had three days of rousing discussion on current topics in science, technology and society. Besides strong interest in OMG standards and IIC testbeds, I always enjoy these few days in Kyoto and this year was no exception!
By the good graces of my old friend Yuji Inoue, I then had a fascinating several hours meeting at Toyota's Tokyo InfoTechnology Center as part of an informal set of briefings with my friends Sadahiko Kano and CS Hong. There was enormous interest in the IIC and how unfortunate that Toyota's early interest in the IIC had centered not on headquarters but from its U.S. subsidiary. As Toyota is now undergoing major changes, there's quite some interest in refocusing on mobility challenges in society.
Organized by Hiroshi Yamamoto of Toshiba, I then had a good meeting at Toyota's Kawasaki office near Toshiba's technical museum (and less famously but more interestingly host venue for an IIC testbed on smart buildings). We discussed Toshiba's activities in IIC and the relationship to standards. I always enjoy "deep dives" into our member's plans!
Again, thanks to Inoue san but also to Hiroshi Hamano, a Director General of the Telecommunication Technology Committee, I then participated in an excellent seminar with Kano and Hong again, but also with Doi san from Toyota. There was lively discussion of mobility topics, 5G and IoT. In the end, we did have to agree to disagree on some points (my ideas about 5G clash with many others') but the telecommunications issues of IoT are certainly many!
My last meeting was also arranged by Inoue san and took up most of the day while I learned about the many innovations under development. Hosted by Mr. Sogawa of NTT Research, Prof. Hong, Inoue san and I saw novel 3D display technologies, new integrated circuit techniques and so forth all day. It was fascinating to see the future!
(L-R): NTT Research's Akira Okada and Tetsuomi Sogawa, Choong Seon Hong from Kyung Hee University, Yuji Inoue of Toyota & Richard Soley of OMG
In the meantime, the next OMG Technical Committee Meeting will be in Seattle, Washington from December 10-14. Our Special Events agenda is still being formalized, but right now there are 4 scheduled as of today:
· IIoT at Work: Focus on Energy (comp. event - more info to come)
· Innovation: Coming to a Store Near You
· OMG Meet & Greet: BPMN in Action!
All events are open to the public but registration is required. I hope to see you in Seattle!
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