The inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee , founded the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C for short) in 1994. The committee has set itself the task of standardizing and harmonizing the techniques used by the World Wide Web. The activity has now been expanded, because the Web of Things (WoT) urgently needs such standards. The Web of Things is about networking devices and machines. With the WoT, the consortium has developed an HTML for machines that leverages a kind of electronic business card to identify the relevant device, how it works and what it is used for. After about two years of development work, the WoT is now ready for practical use.

The smart home is currently the testing ground for networking devices. The lack of standards means that only devices from the same manufacturer can communicate with each other in general. Simon Mayer , professor for interaction and communication-based systems at the University of St. Gallen, expects the planned standardization to take a significant step toward a networked factory. Major providers such as Microsoft and Siemens see the Web of Things as the next big business opportunity.