For modeling both equip assets and devices like controllers, it seems like we should at least standardize a few basic tags for vendor, product, etc. In oBIX we settled on a couple of basic fields, which in Haystack would map to two new tags:

• vendor: name of the company who manufactured the equipment or device
• product: specific product name of the equipment or device

Would everyone consider those safe, simple additions to the tag library?

Do we need to go further?

I think vendor may be a little ambiguous for what we are trying to say. When I think vendor I don't necessarily think manufactured by, I think supplied by. I think a better tag for this may be manufacturer.

Thoughts?

manufacturer would be better, I agree with that. Also, I think we should have a brandName tag too, not that this will be used all the time, but this will help people understand what it is.

Also, these would go on Equipment, and could go on endDevices.

I think manufacturer is probably more technically correct than vendor. On the flip side, vendor is much shorter and already used by oBIX. My vote would be vendor, but don't have a strong preference if everyone wants to vote for manufacturer.

And product seems good enough?

My vote is for vendor as its more concise and the intent is clear.

Any more votes?

If SI's are involved a lot, in which they are, vendor doesn't make sense, manufacturer would always make sense. Just my vote.

Right now we've got 2 votes for vendor and 2 for manufacturer - any other comments or votes?

One comment I didn't express: I like vendor better because it can be used for physical equipment and software. In the case of physical products, manufacturer probably is better (if more verbose), but don't think it translates to software products as well.

Vendor sounds like a business process word. Vending machine is used for soft-drink dispenser's etc . Manufacturer specifically means hardware producer. Manufacturer also has a connection with the word "product". Vendor does not always create a product but manufacturer does.

It is longer but I like manufacturer better.

If I had to choose between the two options, I'd go with "vendor" (shorter); e.g. BACnet has the notion of vendorID. However, IEEE refers to "organization" when it assigns address ranges for use in hardware. BACnet vendorID zero (0) is reserved for ASHRAE (clearly not a vendor or a manufacturer), so my write-in vote would be for organization. It's no longer than "manufacturer" and general enough to cover all cases, including virtual devices.