About webinos

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webinos is an EU funded project aiming to deliver a platform for web applications across mobile, PC, home media (TV) and in-car devices. The webinos project has over twenty partners from across Europe spanning academic institutions, industry research firms, software firms, handset manufacturers and automotive manufacturers. webinos is a “Service Platform” project under the EU FP7 ICT Programme with a budget of 14 m€ including 10 m€ of EU funding. A foundation is planned to continue the work after the end of the project in August 2013, building upon an affiliates program launched in August 2011 that seeks to attract additional organizations to help with work on specifications and platform development.

webinos is a “Service Platform” project under the EU FP7 ICT Programme (click for more info).

For more information on webinos you can download the project fact-sheet in pdf format by clicking here.

Overview

The webinos project will define and deliver an Open Source Platform and software components for the Future Internet in the form of web runtime extensions, to enable web applications and services to be used and shared consistently and securely over a broad spectrum of converged and connected devices, including mobile, PC, home media (TV) and in-car units.

Project title: webinos (Secure Web Operating System Application Delivery Environment)

Project coordinator: Dr. Stephan Steglich, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.

Partners: AmbieSense Ltd (UK), BMW Forschung und Technik GmbH (DE), Deutsche Telekom (DE), DOCOMO (GMBH), Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. (DE), futuretext (UK), IBBT (B), Impleo (UK), Istituto Superiore Mario Boella (I), National Technical University of Athens (GR), Nederlandse Organisatie voor toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NL), Politecnico di Torino (I), Samsung Electronics (UK) Ltd, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communication AB (S), Technische Universität München (DE), Telecom Italia S.p.A. (I), Telefonica (ES), Università di Catania (I), University of Oxford (UK), VisionMobile Ltd. (UK), Volantis Systems Ltd (UK), W3C (F).

Duration: 09/2010 – 08/2013

Total cost: 14 Mio €

Programme: FP7-ICT-2009-5 – Objective 1.2

Further information: http://www.webinos.org. Contact: hello@webinos.org

 
We would like to thank the following software houses for providing licences:

• Atlassian for Jira Issue which tracks all new features and bugs that have occured during the development of webinos
• JetBrains for their excellent cross-platform IntelliJIDEA IDE which supports node.js intellisense and debugging

webinos in a Nutshell

Promoting a “single service for every device” vision, webinos will move the existing baseline of web development from installed applications to services, running consistently across a wide range of connected devices, ensuring that the technologies for describing, negotiating, securing, utilizing device functionalities and adapting to context are fit for purpose.

Innovations in contextual description will be broad covering but not limited to device capabilities, network access, user identity and preferences, location, behaviourally induced properties and finally the more complex issue of the users’ social network context and social media engagement.

webinos will boost the industry migration towards web-based services. webinos can back this by providing inter-operable, standardised, open source technology utilizable across domains with direct commercially exploitable value. webinos will also act as an industry catalyst to encourage collaboration and discourage fragmentation in this space. There are strong industry moves towards Internet friendly and Internet integrated offerings, and there exists a window of opportunity to place the webinos technology on a robust open foundation that will remove economic barriers to engagement, embody policy on data privacy in concrete technology and creating a centre of web centric expertise.

Web-based Application Platform

webinos features the following key concepts:

• webinos bases on the achievements of the Web community and extends an open source web runtime environment.
• webinos represents a leap forward: it is a federated web runtime that offers a common set of APIs to allow apps easy access to cross-user cross-service cross-device functionality in an open yet secure manner.
• webinos aims at easy programming of applications by offering a single virtual device that can consist of all devices owned by a user. This device inherently represents the changing circumstances of context and devices.
• webinos creates open specifications and open source reference implementations that not only show the feasibility of the specifications but also simplify their adaptation by the industry.

The resulting platform features web components that support the rapid creation of innovative and secure web applications, where

• services can be used in several contexts across all user devices,
• services can make use of the specific capabilities and resources the underlying hardware platform provides,
• services can securely access private and non-private data and services on the cloud, social web, as well as data on the user terminal,
• services are developed once by service providers and deployed anywhere, and
• manufacturers and network operators have a service platform constituted by open standards and open source, which satisfies the requirements of the four domains mobile, PC, Home media and in-car units.

webinos – A Secure Platform

webinos will directly address security and privacy issues as part of Quality of Service that users of web services expect. The addressed challenges comprise: how to provision and adapt security across a range of devices, services, networks as well as how individuals can gain control over the privacy aspects of their web presence regardless of the service that is being used. Context and privacy are intimately intertwined: rich context is valuable but without user controlled privacy it becomes a liability.

Context and security are intimately intertwined: rich context is valuable but without user empowered security it becomes a liability. This dual approach is a hallmark of the webinos approach.

Specification and Development

The specification and development of webinos will be carried out in two 18-month-cycles, each encompassing the same set of activities:

1.             Requirement analysis

2.            Specification

3.            Development

4.            Proof-of-Concept and Evaluation

Stay tuned for updates on device APIs to access resources on different kind of devices, fine-grained policy mechanisms to control access to such resources, and Web-based technologies to establish service-interworking across manufacturer boundaries.

 

Be Part of webinos

webinos project is driven by a strong consortium built by mobile phone manufacturers, telecommunication operators, car industries, and top-notch research facilities.

Our joint goal is the development of a secure application platform that facilitates the creation of applications for multiple heterogeneous devices and operating systems, overcomes restrictions implied by proprietary and vendor-specific technologies, and enables the rapid creation of more personalized, secure, and innovative applications.

If you are interested in bringing in your expertise in form of use-cases and requirements or to participate in the specification process and open source development, join the webinos consortium. Get in touch with us at hello@webinos.org.