"There are three major groups attempting to standardize a solution for IoT connectivity: OCF, AllSeen Alliance and Thread Group. Will they go on divergent paths or join efforts behind one body that will standardize the communications between all IoT devices?
...
some companies backing one or another approach, while other companies supporting two or all three of them. Microsoft, as a generalist software developer wants to make sure they have all bases covered. "
It is quite strange that among all those efforts for standardizing communication protocols there is no "meta" effort to standardize "vocabulary" of protocols and then "translate" between them.
Thanks to Moore's law, processing power is less of a challenge, and IoT gateways are perfect for translation role.
On physical (hardware) level there must be some common elements to enable communication, but on protocol (software) level translation would be much more effective than fixed rules. Human languages standardize words, not sentences. So we also need IoT dictionary and thesaurus.
The word "Semantic (web)" is overused for theoretical and too rigid approach. Instead, "smart" may be better.
SMART criteria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Relevant, Time-specific
"a thesaurus is a reference work that lists words grouped together according to similarity of meaning (containing synonyms and sometimes antonyms), in contrast to a dictionary, which provides definitions for words, and generally lists them in alphabetical order."
Semantic technologies for the Internet of Things
Internet of Things Protocols- Postscapes
ScottGu's Blog - Azure: Announcing New Real-time Data Streaming and Data Factory Services
