IoTivity, an open source software framework that enables communications and discovery of devices, products and services for the Internet of Things (IoT) was released for preview on Wednesday. The IoTivity initiative which is licensed under the Apache License version 2.0. is sponsored by the Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC) and is hosted by The Linux Foundation.
The OIC is made up of a group of 50-plus technology organizations led by Intel and Samsung, and the nonprofit Linux Foundation. The IoTivity initiative is similar to the AllJoyn standard developed by AllSeen Alliance which is led by Qualcomm, Microsoft and LG.
The project plans to release a reference implementation of the IoT standards that will help ensure interoperability among products and services regardless of maker and that are deployed across multiple industries, including smart home, automotive, industrial automation, and healthcare.
As a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project, IoTivity is governed by an independent steering group that liaises with the OIC. The project is open to all and includes RESTful-based APIs. The OIC hopes to complete the IoTivity standard within the first half of this year, and foresees IoT-compliant devices reaching the market by the end of 2015.
Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation
The ability for devices and machines to communicate will unleash a whole new world of technology innovation. Open source software and collaborative development are the building blocks to get us there. IoTivity is an exciting opportunity for the open source community to help advance this work.
Mark Skarpness, Director of Embedded Software in Intel’s Open Source Technology Center, and the chair of the IoTivity Steering Group
We believe that an open source project combined with the OIC’s standards efforts is critical to driving true interoperability for the billions of IoT devices that will be coming online over the next few years. We are pleased to be working with The Linux Foundation and the open source community to advance the project.
