The ZigBee™ Alliance,an association of companies working together to enable wirelessly networked monitoring and control products based on an open global standard, announced plans for the public availability of the ZigBee specification. Beginning in late-June, universities, research institutions, companies, and individuals will be able to access the specification and develop applications for ZigBee-based technology for non-commercial purposes. The specification will be available to download in a read-only format, free of charge, after registering through the ZigBee website.

"Our objective in developing the ZigBee specification has been to provide a standard that fosters innovation and accelerates the growth of wireless networking solutions," said Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. "By making the ZigBee specification publicly available later this month, we've greatly expanded the universe of potential ZigBee developers and made it easy for, universities, research institutions and software developers to exploit the ZigBee technology to create new wireless monitoring and sensing applications. We appreciate the incredible amount of time our technical editor Zachary Smith of Ember dedicated to ensure that we could share the specification with interested parties outside the alliance."

Companies interested in ZigBee will be able to review the technical details of the specification in its entirety and gain a greater understanding of the value of ZigBee to their wireless networking efforts. After evaluating the specification, organizations can choose to join the rapidly growing number of ZigBee Alliance Adopter Class members to receive full access to all final, approved ZigBee specifications in order to develop, deliver and receive certification for their ZigBee products. Adopter Class members will be able to attend interoperability events and ZigBee Alliance-sponsored workshops and developer conferences.

The announcement is the latest in a series of important milestones for ZigBee that demonstrate the growing momentum for the standard. Since ZigBee's Open House inaugural event in San Jose in late-2003, attendees have been able to see live demonstrations of technology built on ZigBee by alliance member companies. These events have provided a key opportunity for individuals and companies to view implementations of ZigBee firsthand and gain invaluable insight into the ZigBee architecture. The opportunity to access and view the ZigBee specification directly from the Web will transcend geographic hurdles in educating people on the benefits of ZigBee-based wireless networks. For more information on ZigBee or to register for public access of the specification, visit www.zigbee.org.