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The Linux Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux and collaborative development, announced the formation of the AllSeen Alliance, a consortium dedicated to advancing adoption and innovation in the “Internet of everything” in homes and industry.
Technology research firm Gartner predicts the Internet of things–based on the idea that devices, objects and systems can be connected to enable sharing of information and coordinated and intelligent operations across all of them–will add $1.9 trillion to the global economy by 2020.
The initial framework is based on the AllJoyn open-source project, which was originally developed by and is being contributed to the Alliance by Qualcomm Innovation Center, and will be expanded with contributions from member companies and the open-source community.
Specifically, products, applications and services created with the AllJoyn project can communicate over various transport layers, such as WiFi or power line or Ethernet (PoE), regardless of manufacturer or operating system and without the need for Web access.
The alliance hosts and advances an industry-supported open-software connectivity and services framework based on AllJoyn technology with contributions from partners including LG Electronics, Panasonic, Qualcomm, Sharp, Silicon Image and others.
Community members include Canary, Cisco, D-Link, Harman, HTC, Sears Brand Management, Weaved and others, as well as the open-source community.
The initial codebase is available on the organization’s Website for developers to access and begin evaluating, and the software runs on platforms such as Linux and the Linux-based Android, iOS, and Windows, including embedded variants.
“Open-source software and collaborative development have been proven to accelerate technology innovation in markets where major transformation is underway,” Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation, said in a statement. “Nowhere is this more evident today than in the consumer, industrial and embedded industries where connected devices, systems and services are generating a new level of intelligence in the way we and our systems interact.”
The Linux Foundation provides the collaborative and organizational framework, and the AllSeen alliance represents the organization’s 11th Linux Foundation Collaborative Project.
“Open-source software and collaboration are well-known for fostering innovation. We are eager to apply these principles to moving the market forward for the Internet of everything,” Mamoru Yoshida, managing director for Panasonic, said in a statement. “The AllSeen Alliance’s collaboration will address the immediate needs of the market while creating the necessary foundation for new opportunities that will advance the market.”