ABOUT THE OSGI GROUP
The OSGi is an industry group working to define and promote an open standard for connecting the coming generation of smart consumer and small business appliances with commercial Internet services. The group was founded in March, 1999 and has set the following objectives:
Provide a forum for the development of open specifications for the delivery of multiple services over wide area networks to local home networks and devices.
Accelerate the demand for products and services based on those specifications worldwide through the sponsorship of market and user education programs.
The group started out with 15 companies that were the founders and original members. At the time of writing this guide, OSGi had grown to more than 30 companies committed to supporting the full incorporation and charter of the organization. These companies are listed below; original members are listed first and are indicated by an asterisk.
| *Alcatel | Deutsche Telekom |
| *Cable & Wireless | Berkom GmbH |
| *Electricité de France | Domosys |
| *Enron Communications | Echelon Corporation |
| *Ericsson | emWare Inc. |
| *IBM | France Telecom |
| *Lucent Technologies | Gatespace AB |
| *Motorola | GTE |
| *Liberate Technologies | Hewlett-Packard |
| *Nortel Networks | National Semiconductor GmbH |
| *Oracle Corporation | Nokia Corporation |
| *Philips Electronics | ProSyst Software |
| *Sun Microsystems | Schneider Electric |
| *Sybase | SA Sharp |
| *Toshiba | Siemens AG |
| AMD, Inc. | ST Microelectronics |
| Coactive Networks | Telia Research AB |
| Com21, Inc. | Tokyo Electric |
| Compaq | Whirlpool Corporation |
OSGi was incorporated as a nonprofit organization in May 1999 and has since completed the preparation of by-laws and membership agreements, elected initial directors and officers, established expert groups to work on the initial specifications, and engaged resources to support the organization's operational and marketing programs. Unlike other initiatives, OSGi concentrates on complete end-to-end solutions architecture from remote service provider to local devices. Because the OSGi specification focuses on providing an open application layer and gateway interface, it complements and enhances virtually all current local networking standards and initiatives. The OSGi specifications deliver an open, common architecture for service providers, system developers, software vendors, device vendors, and equipment manufacturers to easily develop, deploy, and manage multiple services in a coordinated fashion.