China appliance brand Midea Group joined the ZigBee Alliance at the promoter level and will have a seat on its board, the alliance said. Midea, which produces consumer appliances and air conditioners, has operations around the world with more than 126,000 employees. Participating in the alliance at the promoter and board levels allows Midea to “invest further in our goals by working with other major brand leaders and technologists to design and deliver around the promise of the Internet of Things,” said Midea Group Director-Product Strategy and Operations Ethan Xue. Other ZigBee Alliance board members are Comcast Cable, Itron, Kroger Co., Landis+Gyr, Legrand Group, NXP Semiconductors, Philips, Schneider Electric, Silicon Labs, SmartThings, Texas Instruments and Wulian.

Filings are now due June 2 on an NTIA request for comments on the technological and policy landscape of the IoT, said a notice in Wednesday's Federal Register. The original deadline was May 23. The action was "in response to requests for additional time in which to comment,” NTIA said. In April, the agency asked for comment on the government's role in encouraging the growth of the IoT (see 1604060030).

The next president needs to work with the tech sector to “advance an agenda” that “ensures Americans possess the skills and talents needed for 21st century success” and “fosters a business climate that rewards risk and promotes innovation,” said CTA, the Information Technology Industry Council and 11 other tech groups Wednesday in an open letter to the remaining presidential candidates. The next administration also should work to encourage “a fair and open global market for goods and services” and to maintain “cutting-edge U.S. infrastructure that supports entrepreneurs,” said the groups, which also included Allied for Startups, BSA|The Software Alliance, CCIA, the Internet Association, CompTIA, the Semiconductor Industry Association, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, the Technology CEO Council, the Software and Information Industry Association, TIA and TechNet. Their letter included a tech sector “presidential platform” with main points including boosting skills of the U.S. workforce and promoting an economy that nurtures innovation. The next president should “welcome high-skilled immigrants” as part of the effort to boost the skills of the U.S. workforce, the platform said. Doing so will “improve the ability of companies operating in the United States to recruit and retain highly educated foreign graduates and professionals to meet hiring needs and supplement our talented U.S. workforce,” it said. In working to “propel innovation,” the next president should “encourage policies that protect expression and creativity online,” promote and ease access to new spectrum and develop an IoT “strategy,” it said. That strategy should promote policies “to encourage innovation, competition, and private investment that are essential elements for IoT technologies to thrive,” it said.

Microsoft acquired Solair, an Italian company that has been delivering IoT services to customers “across a number of industries,” including manufacturing and retail, said Sam George, Microsoft partner director for its Azure-branded IoT platform, in a Tuesday blog post. Solair shares Microsoft’s “ambition” for helping customers “harness their untapped data and create new intelligence with IoT,” George said. The acquisition supports Microsoft’s strategy “to deliver the most complete IoT offering for enterprises,” he said. Integrating Solair’s technology into the Azure platform “will continue to enhance our complete IoT offering for the enterprise,” he said. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

The IoT, 5G, security and privacy were among focuses of the 20th meeting of the Global Standards Collaboration (GSC) in New Delhi last month, the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions said Tuesday in a news release. The IoT “remains a key topic for standardization and attracts interest from industry, public authorities and end users,” ATIS said. “GSC members reviewed current standardization activities focused on specific applications and use cases, such as smart cities and intelligent manufacturing. They also explored how IoT can help address global challenges such as electricity access in the developing parts of the world.” GSC members also discussed “current and anticipated standardization and research activities in the 5G area,” ATIS said: “They noted the importance of engaging both regulators and businesses in the development of 5G and reiterated the need for continued collaboration among” standards groups.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will be the focus of four public workshops over the next few months, said the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Tuesday. OSTP will be co-hosting the sessions with academic institutions, nonprofits and the National Economic Council. It said information gleaned from the discussions will be used to help develop a public report later this year. Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer Ed Felten wrote in a blog post the meetings will be May 24 in Seattle, June 7 in Washington, June 28 in Pittsburgh and July 7 in New York City. While AI is "confined to narrow, specific tasks," its influence is growing in areas such as education, healthcare, image- and voice-recognition, self-driving cars and drones, wrote Felten. But the technology also carries risks such as eliminating old jobs even as it creates new ones and predicting its behavior in certain scenarios, he said. Issues such as law, privacy, regulation, research and development and security also need to be taken into consideration, said Felten. Plus, he said the National Science and Technology Council's new Subcommittee on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence will have its inaugural meeting next week. The group, he said, will monitor AI and machine learning advances and technology milestones within the federal government, private sector and internationally and help coordinate federal activity on this issue.

The Donuts domain name registry said it invested in geofence management firm GeoFrenzy, launching its Donuts Labs investment initiative. Donuts didn't disclose how much it invested in GeoFrenzy but said its Donuts Labs initiative will target companies that may create new uses for domain names or otherwise complement Donuts' interests. Apps use the geofence technology that GeoFrenzy manages to define geographic areas and then direct drones, driverless cars and other technologies. “There are outstanding opportunities available to put Donuts' abilities to work in companies that are similar to ours, use DNS [domain name system] technology, or simply are adjacent to our industry,” Donuts CEO Paul Stahura said in a Tuesday news release. “The Donuts team intends to be active in these developing areas.”

The ULE Alliance said its testing partner AT4 wireless certified 10 Panasonic IoT products for the ULE Alliance certification program. ULE-certified Panasonic hardware and software products: a siren; two user interfaces; glass break, flood, motion, simple and window open/close sensors; generic application logic; and AC outlet with power meter, said the alliance Monday. Crow, Huawei and VTech products also have been certified for ULE interoperability.

Two House lawmakers introduced companion legislation to the Senate's Developing Innovation and Growing the Internet of Things (Digit) Act, which calls for a national strategy on developing the growing network of connected devices, sensors, and other technologies. The Senate Commerce Committee approved S-2607 Wednesday after a markup (see 1604270025). Like the Senate bill, the House's Digit Act (HR-5117) -- introduced by Reps. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., and Peter Welch, D-Vt. -- would establish a working group with representatives from businesses, federal agencies and nongovernmental stakeholders to provide guidance on potential regulatory hindrances, current and future spectrum needs, and security concerns, the lawmakers said in a joint news release Friday. “This technology is developing rapidly, and Congress should take a proactive approach to addressing potential roadblocks that may arise, rather than trying to catch up later," said Paulsen in the statement. "Removing barriers on the front end will pave the way for countless technological advances.”

Legislation calling for a national strategy on developing IoT, including the establishment of a federal-led working group to help foster innovation in this area, was approved by the Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday after a markup. The panel passed a substitute amendment for the Developing Innovation and Growing the Internet of Things (Digit) Act and OK'd three minor amendments to the legislation, which now heads to the full Senate for a vote. Sens. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., Cory Booker, D-N.J., Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, introduced the Digit Act (S-2607) in March (see 1603010053). "Our bill would foster dialogue between the private and public sectors to promote collaboration and well-informed policies moving forward," they said in a joint statement. "It would also help ensure spectrum availability, encourage innovation, and protect consumers." More than 50 billion devices are expected to be connected to the Internet by 2020 and could potentially generate trillions of dollars in economic activity globally, the bill said. It also has support from the technology sector, including the Competitive Carriers Association, CTA and Telecommunications Industry Association, the statement said.