Re: Building the Web of Things [via Web of Things Community Group]

Just to clarify, _this_ mailing list - "public-web-of-things@w3.org" - is
where we're having discussions about this?

D.


On Tue, Jun 2, 2015 at 7:05 AM, W3C Community Development Team <
team-community-process@w3.org> wrote:

> The Web grew strong on the back of open source and a community of
> enthusiasts.
> Now, improvements in electronics are fuelling the Internet of Things, and
> we
> have a limited window of opportunity to create and establish strong open
> standards on a world wide scale for the IoT.
>
> Right now, the IoT suffers from fragmentation and data silos. Without
> strong
> open standards, we’re likely to see competing proprietary solutions that
> increase the costs for developers and limit the potential.
>
> W3C is one of the few organizations that can define global standards to
> enable
> discovery and interoperability of services on a world wide basis. We want
> to
> extend the Web from a Web of pages to a Web of Things.
>
> The value proposition is enabling lowered development costs and unlocking
> data
> silos by bridging IoT platforms through the Web at a range of device
> scales from
> microcontrollers to cloud-based server farms.
>
> We will do this via a core model of services in terms of metadata, events,
> properties and actions, that is bound to a variety of protocols as no one
> protocol will fulfill all needs. By bindings, we mean how to use the
> protocols
> to notify events and property updates, and how to invoke actions and
> return the
> results via REST based messages for each protocol.
>
> The importance of this core model of services is that it simplifies the
> scripting of services by decoupling the details of the communication
> protocols.
> The server uses the models to automatically create local objects for
> scripts to
> interact with in place of having to directly drive the protocols. This
> makes it
> easier to build highly scalable servers which are free to use the
> protocols best
> suited to the requirements.
>
> We would like to achieve this through open source projects for Web of
> Things
> servers for a number of different device types, and a start has been made
> with
> an implementation based on NodeJS. This is still at a very early stage,
> but it
> nonetheless suggests the potential.
>
>         https://github.com/w3c/web-of-things-framework
>
> The initial code uses HTTP to access the descriptions of “things”
> represented in JSON-LD, i.e. the semantics are founded on W3C’s work on
> Linked
> Data, but expressed with the simplicity of JSON. The messaging is built on
> top
> of WebSockets.
>
> The idea is to extend this to support a wider range of protocols,
> including MQTT
> and XMPP as well as pure HTTP solutions. The roadmap calls for work on
> supporting richer metadata for security, privacy and communication
> patterns. We
> also are looking for help with work on device drivers, both for direct
> access,
> e.g. through GPIO ports on the device hosting the server, or through IoT
> technologies such as Bluetooth and ZigBee. We’re also looking for people
> interested in open source development of highly scalable cloud based
> servers,
> building on the firm foundation of existing projects.
>
> So if you are willing to help with software development for the Web of
> Things
> servers, that would be greatly appreciated. In addition, to the NodeJS
> server,
> we anticipate work on servers for microcontrollers, e.g. building upon
> existing
> open source projects for CoAP and MQTT. Potential target devices include
> the
> Arduino and the more powerful ESP8266. Like the Web of pages, we expect
> that
> developers will want to choose which programming languages they use, e.g.
> JavaScript on NodeJS, Lua on NodeMCU, Python on MicroPython, and C/C++ on
> the
> Arduino IDE.
>
> To complement work on the software, we will need help with use cases,
> design and
> documentation, and with test frameworks and associated test suites. We’re
> also
> looking for people to apply the web of things to practical IoT projects
> and to
> share their experiences with the wider community, including helping with
> hackathons. There is a lot of fun to be had by hobbyists thanks to the low
> cost
> of microcontrollers, sensor, actuators and associated electronic
> components.
> There are also opportunities for businesses to exploit open standards as
> they
> emerge, and to avoid being locked into a particular vendor’s platform. A
> strong open source community will stimulate innovation and lower costs
> through
> shared building blocks and expertise that allows businesses to focus on the
> added value they offer to customers.
>
> We welcome contributions to the open source projects whether extensions to
> existing server projects or to new ones like the NodeJS server cited
> above. If
> you find a bug in the source code or a mistake in the documentation, you
> can
> help us by submitting an issue to the GitHub repository, and likewise if
> you
> have suggestions for new features. Even better you can submit a Pull
> Request
> with a fix.
>
> We encourage you to join the W3C Web of Things Community Group where
> contribution and discussions will happen. Anyone can join and there are no
> fees.
> The Community Group hosts a publicly archived mailing list, blog and wiki.
> We
> can also collaborate on documents, e.g. on GitHub. So if you have ideas
> you want
> present or questions to ask please feel encouraged to do so. Together we
> can
> build a better Web!
>
> The Community Group is at: https://www.w3.org/community/wot/
>
> n.b. the Community Group has been quiet to date with most of the activity
> occurring in the associated W3C Interest Group, but I hope to change that
> as we
> kick start the effort on open source and applications. If you work for a
> W3C
> Member Organisation, you are also welcome to join the Interest Group.
>
>
>
> ----------
>
> This post sent on Web of Things Community Group
>
>
>
> 'Building the Web of Things'
>
> https://www.w3.org/community/wot/2015/06/02/building-the-web-of-things/
>
>
>
> Learn more about the Web of Things Community Group:
>
> https://www.w3.org/community/wot
>
>
>
>