LinuxConf Europe 2007

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Duxford Excursion (Monday)

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Torsten Spindler - Canonical

The Ubuntu Home

The next generation of building automation systems (or smart homes) will be fully networked and offer integrated services. This market is currently being developed by a number of companies that are already strong in first generation building automation systems (for example, Siemens Building Technology) and smaller companies (for example RaumComputer, aizo). It is in the interest of these companies to establish proprietary standards in an emerging market to become primary contenders there.

The open source community faces the challenge to preempt this move by proposing, lobbying and establishing open standards, open formats and open source products in the smart home of tomorrow. Linux and Open Source Software are already strong in the embedded system market and various bits and pieces of hardware can be obtained to run a home automation system even today on Linux. What is missing is the integration part.

Following the example of the Ubuntu distribution, this talk outlines the necessary steps to be taken to present an integrated solution for a next generation automated home or small office. Focusing on ease-of-use, a wide range of possible services and a community-based development model, the Ubuntu home presents a vision of a next generation building automation system that can be deployed and used by everybody.