• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, September 29, 2014

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) on Monday announced the launch of a new tech lab to spearhead development of technical standards and create a platform for companies to test the compatibility of their technology solutions with IAB standards.

The overarching goals of IAB Technical Laboratory are to help members save time and money by providing certification for tech vendors, reducing compatibility issues and driving industry standards across video, mobile and the Internet of Things, among other emerging areas.

Overseeing the tech lab will be an independent board of directors and executive committee, responsible for its agenda and funds allocation and reporting to the senior leader leadership of the IAB. Marketers and agencies, as well as other companies, will be invited to join.

The lab will have its own space and engineering, product and project management staff, with personnel announcements to follow, said an IAB spokesperson. 

Separately, the IAB said at its annual MIXX conference, that it's widening its criteria for full voting, or “general,” membership from “sellers of interactive advertising inventory” to “companies that sell, distribute, or optimize digital advertising or marketing programs.”

Accordingly, a number of current nonvoting, or “associate,” member companies will now be eligible to vote, serve on the IAB Board of Directors, and chair IAB committees and councils.

Companies that are already general members will automatically become members of the Tech Lab. The IAB board voted unanimously on Sept. 17 in favor of the change in membership criteria, and the organization’s current general members last week approved the expansion.

“With the growth and increasing complexity of a value chain based as much on transacting data as transacting inventory, many of the initial distinctions between IAB members are no longer relevant. Instead, we need to come to the table together as counterparts in shaping the future of the digital ecosystem,” stated IAB Board chairman and Ziff Davis CEO Vivek Shah.

The IAB said dues generated by the conversion of applicable nonvoting members to voting members will also, in great part, go toward funding the new tech lab and its operations. The trade group already operates the Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, focused on helping to establish core mobile metrics and mobile ad standards.