News
Issue #2002 - 34 (September 2002)
(Updated Sep. 10, 2002)

TECHNOLOGY

OSGi Members Showcase Smart Home Advancements at e/home Show

San Ramon, Calif. - Members of the Open Services Gateway Initiative (OSGi) alliance exhibited OSGi Service Platform-based capabilities at the e/home show in Berlin from August 29-30. A broad variety of presentations focused on the advantages of the OSGi Service Platform, its specifications, realization, and use for innovative service delivery targeted at the smart home. Exhibiting OSGi alliance member companies at the show include BSH (Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH), Deutsche Telekom, Echelon, IBM, Philips, ProSyst, and Telefónica de Espana.

The e/home exhibition offered an all-inclusive view of the intelligent home. The exhibition highlighted the networking of home systems, voice, event and remote control in "intelligent" networks and demonstrations with respect to remote monitoring, remote maintenance and remote control. The exhibiting OSGi member companies discussed topics such as the smart kitchen, remote access, home entertainment, combining services for the networked home, software solutions and much
more. The OSGi Service Platform supports network delivered services for a remote device that can then run locally or in conjunction with other network resources. The specification is explicitly designed to be
open and synergistic with a wide range of existing networking and computer technologies and enhances virtually all current networking standards and initiatives. The OSGi compliance program establishes a
common specification third parties can use to create value-added services that can be delivered over a variety of networking systems using platforms incorporating compliant OSGi service platforms.

The first OSGi World Congress will be held September 24-27, 2002 in Stockholm, Sweden. The above e/home exhibitors, as well as other OSGi member companies, will discuss the latest product developments and deployments. This will provide an excellent opportunity for developers to network with the OSGi community and learn how to develop their own OSGi service bundles.

About OSGi
The Open Services Gateway Initiative (OSGi), established in 1999, is an independent, non-profit corporation. The OSGi alliance provides the only vendor-neutral, multiple-sourced specification in the
industry to deliver and manage an application or service through a network that runs locally on a remote device. The OSGi alliance also works to proliferate these open specifications through the sponsorship
of technology, market, and user education programs. OSGi is a global, cross-industry consortium.

About BSH
BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH is a group with worldwide operations. BSH offers large home appliances, consumer products and domestic technology. BSH now encompasses over 100 companies in 30 countries, with more than 35,000 employees. Group headquarters are in Munich. Visit the BSH website at http://www.bsh-group.com.

About Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom is Europe's largest telecommunications company. Visit the Deutsche Telekom website at www.telekom.de.

About Echelon Corporation
Echelon Corporation is the creator of the LonWorks platform, one of the most widely used standard for connecting everyday devices such as appliances, thermostats, air conditioners, electric meters, and lighting systems to each other and to the Internet.  Further information regarding Echelon can be found at <http://www.echelon.com>.

About IBM
IBM (www.ibm.com) is the world's leading e-business company offering a wide range of services, solutions and technologies that help businesses take advantage of emerging innovation. IBM is supporting Open Services Gateway Initiative (OSGi) because integration demands open standards. With billions of smart devices interacting, the problems of integration cannot be solved with a proprietary approach. OSGi is a vital link in the value chain of open industry standards that make possible new worlds of e-business solutions based on intelligent, networked devices in businesses, vehicles, the home, and even in your hand. IBM intends to provide services based on the OSGi Framework component of WebSphere Everyplace Embedded Software, WebSphere Micro Edition, a Java Virtual Machine environment, Eclipse and WebSphere Device Developer development tools, DB2 Everyplace and
Cloudbase databases, MQSeries Everyplace message queuing systems. 

About Royal Philips Electronics
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of EUR 32.3 billion in 2001. It is a global leader in color television
sets, lighting, electric shavers, medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring, and one-chip TV products. The Philips website is located at www.philips.com.

About ProSyst
ProSyst offers a variety of open and scalable software solutions which pave the way for the development, deployment, and management of new applications and end-to-end services, such as remote control, remote maintenance, remote diagnosis, data readout and software update via the Internet. Embedded within a residential, automotive or industrial environment, ProSyst´s innovative solutions enable a new level of interactivity between local network components, external networks and the Internet. Established in 1997 and headquartered in Cologne, Germany, ProSyst employs more than 200 people, of whom 150+ are Java developers and consultants focusing on embedded solutions. For more info, go to http://www.prosyst.com.

About Telefónica
Telefónica S.A. is the leading telecommunications operator in the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world. The company operates in 17 countries. Visit the website at www.telefonica.com.

For more information: http://www.osgi.org and websites of OSGi members listed above. 

MobileInfo Comments and Advisory:  OSGi is a timely industry forum that has been set up to develop interfacing standards for emerging market segment that can be defined as "Gateway for Smart Home or SOHO". This gateway must interface with several diverse devices from non-traditional industries. We should be able to control remotely in-home computers, security systems, alarm systems, energy measuring instruments, lights, future intelligent appliances and recording entertainment systems like TVs and VCRs.  In our recent interview with John Barr, the president of OSGi, we found that there is well-intentioned desire to create open standards for interfacing diverse devices. The members have recognized very wisely that no single vendor can provide all the answers in this sector and that they must cooperate and develop open standards. That is a good start. We encourage interested professionals to participate and support this effort. 

Note: This news release may contain forward-looking statements. Readers should take appropriate caution in developing plans utilizing these products, services and technology architectures.  All trademarks used in this summary are the property of their respective owners.