Open Services Gateway Initiative Builds Momentum / 30+ Member Companies Convene in Chicago to Establish Open Standard For Delivering E-Services to Homes/Small B

SAN RAMON, Calif. (PROTEXT) - More than 30 leading technology companies from across the world are gathered in Chicago this week at the first official meeting of the Open Services Gateway Initiative (www.osgi.org). OSGi is an industry group working to define and promote an open standard for connecting the next generation of smart consumer and small business appliances with commercial Internet services. The Open Services Gateway specification, scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2000, will provide a common foundation for Internet Service Providers, network operators and equipment manufacturers to deliver a wide range of e-services to gateway servers running in the home, small business or remote/branch office. The Open Services Gateway Initiative (OSGi) is an open industry effort announced in March 1999. OSGi has since formalized its by-laws and articles of incorporation, organizing itself as a non-profit corporation in the United States. To date, 33 companies have joined as charter members of OSGi: Alcatel, AMD, Coactive Networks, Com21, Compaq, Deutsche Telekom, Domosys, Echelon, Electricite de France, emWare, Ericsson, France Telecom, Gatespace, GTE, Hewlett-Packard, IBM Corporation, Liberate Technologies, Motorola, National Semiconductor, Nokia, Oracle Corporation, Philips, ProSyst Software, Schneider Electric, Sharp, Siemens, STMicroelectronics, Sun Microsystems, Sybase, Telia, Tokyo Electric, Toshiba, and Whirlpool. Quotes from charter members are featured on the OSGi Web site (www.osgi.org). OSGi announced the election of the following representatives to its Board of Directors through June 2000: -- Dan Bandera, Business Line Manager for Client & OEM Technology, IBM Corporation -- John Barr, Director of Internet Architecture, Digital Experience Team, Motorola -- Colin Clifford, Director Strategic Business Development, Europe, National Semiconductor -- Robert Elliott, Director Central Electronics Systems, Whirlpool Corporation -- Robert Froehlich, Programme Manager - Customer Services & Telecom, Electricite de France -- Allyson Fryhoff, Senior Director, Mobile & Embedded Products, Oracle Corporation -- Rolf Johansson, Marketing Manager, e-services, Ericsson -- Jeff Lund, Director of Marketing and Business Development, Echelon Corporation -- Robert Mines, Senior Manager, Sun Microsystems -- Ari Nieminen, Assistant Vice President, Business, Nokia -- Eric Vallet, Project Manager, Alcatel OSGi also announced the election of the following Officers through June 2000: -- President and Americas Regional Vice President (Acting): John Barr, Motorola -- Vice President of Marketing: Joseph Bassi, Sun Microsystems -- Europe/Middle East/Africa Vice President: Malte Lilliestrale, Ericsson -- Asia Pacific Vice President: Lawrence Chan, Echelon Corporation -- Treasurer (Acting): Allyson Fryhoff, Oracle Corporation -- Secretary: Uwe Hansmann, IBM Corporation -- Executive Director: Deepak Kamlani, Interprise Ventures Through open collaboration, OSGi is creating an end-to-end service delivery architecture to enable the home and small business market for Internet and e-commerce services such as: * Security, alarm and safety services * Content services * Energy management and metering services * Entertainment services * Health care and patient monitoring services * Appliance monitoring and repair services * Home automation and networking services * One-point Internet access "The work of OSGi is important in that it will help enable the delivery of integrated, value-added services to end customers, from a variety of service providers over different physical layer technologies. Today, this is not possible," said Michael Wolf, senior networking analyst, Cahners In-Stat Group, a market research firm based in Scottsdale, Arizona. "In addition, the work of OSGi will further promote the important concept of the residential gateway and its role within the delivery of these services." "By enabling consumer electronics developers to standardize intelligent interfaces between the LAN and the WAN, consumers are going to enjoy the benefits of all kinds of new applications and services," said Kurt Scherf, analyst, In-Home Networks with Parks Associates, a market research firm based in Dallas, Texas. "The OSGi is bringing the power of broadband Internet services and the home network together to deliver greater control, comfort, and convenience to households." With Open Services Gateway, companies will be able to take advantage of the significant opportunities in home networking and the convergence of computer, entertainment and Internet products and services. OSGi offers home and small business owners increased value, comfort and choice of service offerings, while creating new business opportunities for suppliers and service providers. No single company can accomplish this alone, thus OSGi has been created to develop an open standard so that service providers, system developers and equipment manufacturers can easily develop, deploy and manage these multiple e-services. "OSGi believes the networked home and small business is the next frontier, and we're building the industry's first open interface for connecting devices and appliances with Internet services," said John Barr, president of OSGi, and director, Internet Architectures for Digital Experience, Motorola. "With the participation of 33 charter member companies and the formalizing of our organization, we're poised to deliver an open, global specification in 2000. Ultimately, consumers will be able to select from a variety of services for their security, energy management and home automation needs, while being able to quickly incorporate new information appliances into their home networks with online support provided by manufacturers through the Open Services Gateway platform." Services Gateway Market Explodes Industry deregulation and new technology are rapidly transforming how players in the residential services market define and manage their business. As residential telecom and datacom services combine, homes and small offices will be equipped with "services gateways" that will function as the platform for any communications-based services. The services gateway will consolidate and manage voice, data, Internet and multimedia communications to and from the home and small office. Cahners In-Stat Group predicts the residential gateway market will grow from $200 million in 2000 to $2.4 billion in 2003. The OSGi specification will create an open standard for a services gateway that bridges the external network and the internal network. The OSGi gateway will link client devices in the home or small office to external service providers. The gateway will provide a central point from which services can be deployed and managed -- all from a central operations system that can link enterprise billing and other existing legacy applications to the clients internal to the gateway. OSGi E-Service Applications With the transition of traditional residential services into the Internet Economy, the Open Services Gateway is the technology that will enable the e- service business model. Based on this business model, consumers and small business owners will be able to select from a multitude of convenient, communications-based services. For example: -- Power companies will be able to deliver energy management and intelligent energy load management for homes and businesses. Utility providers, such as gas, water and electric companies will have automated meters that transmit readings with no manual assistance. A small business owner could receive notification on a mobile phone that the temperature of his office had fallen below zero. -- Home security systems will no longer require proprietary communications systems. Messages could be sent to mobile phones the instant an alarm is triggered -- the same time the alarm company or police learn about it. Parents might know if their kids returned home from school at normal time. -- Caring for an elderly parent or relative will be enhanced through low- cost patient monitoring devices that continuously transmit critical care or emergency information to hospitals, physicians or paramedics -- reducing costs and increasing safety and security. About the Open Services Gateway Specification Initially based on Java technology, the Open Services Gateway specification will give service providers, device makers and appliance manufacturers vendor-neutral local network to Wide Area Network (WAN) connectivity interfaces. Because of the portability of Java technology, application programmers will be able to write an application once to run on any device or network that supports the specification. The specification will be composed of separate functional elements: Application framework and resource management; Client APIs for thin and fat WAN clients; Device APIs for local area network; Security and integrity APIs; and Data management APIs for database integration administration. The Open Services Gateway specification will be designed to complement and enhance virtually all residential networking standards and initiatives, such as Bluetooth, CAL, CEBus, emNET, HAVi, HomePNA, HomePnP, HomeRF, Jini technology, LonWorks, VESA and Convergence. In the same way, the specification will leverage the value of existing wireline and wireless networks while providing flexibility toward WCDMA, xDSL, cable and other high speed access technologies. The initial OSGi specification is currently in internal review by the technical committee and is scheduled for public release in 1Q2000. About OSGi The OSGi is a non-profit corporation formed to provide a forum for the creation of open specifications for the delivery of multiple services over wide-area networks to local networks and devices, and to accelerate the demand for products and services based on these specifications worldwide through the sponsorship of market and user education programs. The San Ramon, California, USA-based consortium comprises 33 member organizations from around the globe. Membership is open to any interested party, including Internet Service Providers, Network Operators, Original Equipment Manufacturers, Independent Software Vendors, end users, academic institutions, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. The consortium's Web site address is http://www.osgi.org. All company, brand and product names may be trademarks that are the sole property of their respective owners. All Rights Reserved. ots Original Text Service: Open Services Gateway Initiative Internet: http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: Edith Esquenazi, Senior Account Executive, +1 972-830-2504, or email, eesquena@bsmg.com, or David Nieland, Group Manager, +1 972-830- 2663, or email, dnieland@bsmg.com, both of BSMG Worldwide, for Open Services Gateway Initiative; or Deepak Kamlani, Managing Director of interprise ventures, +1 925 277 8110, or email, dkamlani@inventures.com Web site: http://www.osgi.org Subscribers please note that material bearing the slug "PROTEXT" is not part of CTK's news service and is not to be published under the "CTK" slug. Protext is a commercial service providing distribution of press releases from clients, who are identified in the text of Protext reports and who bear full responsibility for their contents. PROTEXT