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Community & Business Groups

Building Device Naming Standards Community Group

Being able to efficiently collect, analyse and leverage data insights from buildings is a catalyst for optimising building performance, improving the use of resources and moving towards predictive maintenance and buildings that can respond to the climate emergency.

The lack of standardised naming and labelling for connected devices in the built environment means we are failing to leverage the value of data to allow interoperability, improve building efficiency and increase occupant productivity.

A naming and labelling standard (complementing other industry initiatives) will simplify and drive consistency thus increasing value by unlocking the application of technologies such as machine learning.

The work of this community group will align with and complement other initiatives in the industry such as BRICK, Haystack, Omniclass, Uniclass, IFC etc.

In scope for this work are:

  • A simple specification for naming syntax
  • A register of building device names and labels
theodi/BDNS
Group's public email, repo and wiki activity over time

Note: Community Groups are proposed and run by the community. Although W3C hosts these conversations, the groups do not necessarily represent the views of the W3C Membership or staff.

Chairs, when logged in, may publish draft and final reports. Please see report requirements.

Call for Participation in Building Device Naming Standards Community Group

The Building Device Naming Standards Community Group has been launched:


Being able to efficiently collect, analyse and leverage data insights from buildings is a catalyst for optimising building performance, improving the use of resources and moving towards predictive maintenance and buildings that can respond to the climate emergency.

The lack of standardised naming and labelling for connected devices in the built environment means we are failing to leverage the value of data to allow interoperability, improve building efficiency and increase occupant productivity.

A naming and labelling standard (complementing other industry initiatives) will simplify and drive consistency thus increasing value by unlocking the application of technologies such as machine learning.

The work of this community group will align with and complement other initiatives in the industry such as BRICK, Haystack, Omniclass, Uniclass, IFC etc.

In scope for this work are:

  • A simple specification for naming syntax
  • A register of building device names and labels

In order to join the group, you will need a W3C account. Please note, however, that W3C Membership is not required to join a Community Group.

This is a community initiative. This group was originally proposed on 2020-01-21 by Olivier Thereaux. The following people supported its creation: Olivier Thereaux, Sotiria Lavasa, Phil Archer, Julian Barker, Michael Trousdell. W3C’s hosting of this group does not imply endorsement of the activities.

The group must now choose a chair. Read more about how to get started in a new group and good practice for running a group.

We invite you to share news of this new group in social media and other channels.

If you believe that there is an issue with this group that requires the attention of the W3C staff, please email us at site-comments@w3.org

Thank you,
W3C Community Development Team