In challenging economic times, businesses compelled to critically review operational expenditures continue to identify maintenance costs of legacy applications as a particularly heavy financial burden. In response, business is starting to focus on sustainable development, meaning the delivery of highly adaptive business systems that require minimal effort to maintain. I have realized “maintainable systems must be modular systems” and believe this imperative has fueled the increased rate of OSGi adoption through 2011.

Indeed, 2011 has been a busy year for the OSGi Alliance. We recently completed our restructuring efforts, introducing membership levels that increase participation opportunities across a range of Alliance activities. Restructuring the Alliance required prolonged effort and I’d like to thank all those involved, with a special thanks to Dan Bandera who navigated the process through its many twists and turns. Details of the new membership levels, and what they mean to you and your organization, can be found in the restructuring article within this newsletter, or, of course, on the OSGi Alliance web site.

The popularity of our annual OSGi Alliance Community Event suggests that our restructuring efforts are well timed. European members and even members from the United States and Asia enthusiastically attended the two-day September event in Darmstadt, Germany. In addition to some excellent presentations, it was clear that a number of markets have embraced OSGi-centric product strategies. The increase in activity within our OSGi User Groups is again noteworthy, as is the recent formation of the Washington, D.C. and New York User Groups.

From a specifications perspective, a major 2011 priority has been the OSGi Residential specification, delivery of which will further accelerate OSGi adoption in the residential market through 2012 and onwards. Meanwhile, the Core Platform Expert Group has been hard at work with the OSGi Alliance Service Platform Core and Compendium 4.3 specification, while the Enterprise Expert Group has delivered both the OBR and Subsystem specifications, both of which will further accelerate OSGi adoption in the Enterprise.

As measured by the increased activity and diversity of OSGi-based open source projects, OSGi’s modularity message has continued to gain mindshare with development communities through 2011. Peter Kriens’ insightful article series, “The Service Side,” which explored the fundamentals of “what it means to be modular,” have certainly helped this process. Also, at the request of numerous vocal OSGi advocates, the OSGi Community Wiki web site was created earlier this year. While still a work in progress, the Community Wiki is rapidly becoming the place to visit for high-quality information and guidance on OSGi specifications and best practices. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank those involved, with particular thanks to Alex Blewitt for leading these efforts.

Looking ahead to 2012, I see the adoption trend for OSGi accelerating. Modularity and the dynamic assembly of sophisticated business systems will start to redefine our understanding of “cloud computing.” The Alliance has also placed OSGi on firm footing with respect to convergence of cloud computing with a pervasive edge, with EEG and REG specifications already forming a coherent foundation for the next generation of modular federated devices and computer clouds.

Exciting times!

I’d like to conclude by wishing you all the very best for 2012. Despite the economic challenges we collectively face, I believe 2012 will be an exciting year for those of you who are moving your businesses forward towards a modular, maintainable, sustainable future.

Richard Nicholson
President,
OSGi Alliance

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OSGi RESTRUCTURES MEMBERSHIP: JOIN TODAY

The Alliance announced a new membership structure in November that prompts more organizations to participate in the technical development and evolution of OSGi technology. Tiered pricing for leadership privileges and more options for technical involvement make it easier for organizations to influence the OSGi Service Platform, the dynamic module system for Java™, and leverage new royalty-free intellectual property rights to OSGi specifications in their products and services.

Restructured Alliance levels are Strategic and Principal Members, and Contributing Associates. Principal level pricing is tiered for companies with 250 or more employees and companies with fewer than 250 employees. The Contributing Associates level introduces a new technically focused option for more organizations to actively contribute to OSGi specifications and technology.

Alliance membership offers privileges beyond access and input to a larger pool of potential members under the new structure.

All three levels include privileges to direct and contribute to specifications through expert groups and committees and participate in the development of draft and final specifications. Principal Members can lead expert groups and committees, run for an Alliance officer position, and commercially license OSGi Alliance Compliance Tests at no additional cost. Board governance is a privilege reserved for Strategic Members through eligibility for the Board of Directors.

Visit the OSGi Alliance web site to review the complete list of membership benefits.

Membership pricing is $5,000 annually for Contributing Associates, $20,000 annually for Principal Members, or $10,000 for Principal Members with fewer than 250 employees, and $25,000 annually for Strategic Members. The Alliance also offers a free Supporter level to organizations that want to promote the Alliance and its technology.

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The second half of 2011 was busy for OSGi Users’ Forums and Groups with meetings for France, Germany, UK and the inaugural DC Metro, our first U.S.-based forum.

Planning is under way for events this year so be sure to get involved with your local forum or group to find out what’s happening in the world of OSGi and to network with your peers. Details of all of the Forums and Groups are available here.

OSGi Users’ Group France held a two-day meeting in Grenoble in November with 10 presentations and talks about how different organizations are using OSGi. The talk details and presentations are available online.

OSGi Users' Forum Germany organized its second code camp in October 2011 where participants from all over Germany and Austria attended the one-day workshop in Berlin to learn about the basics of OSGi, develop bundles together with other experts for more challenging tasks such as remote services, or try out new tools for web UI development.

The basis for the common educational developments in the UFG's workshops is a virtual Mars Robot project, which is publicly available at Google Code (http://code.google.com/a/eclipselabs.org/p/occ/). 

On November 16, 2011, users also held their annual OSGi Users' Forum Meeting in Cologne with 10 presentations about different fields of applications in which OSGi is successfully deployed in research projects and product developments in Germany and Europe. The agenda as well as the presentations (mostly in German) are available online.

For 2012, the OSGi Users’ Forum Germany is planning two code camps, one workshop about tooling for OSGi, as well as the annual Users' Forum Meeting. For further details, please visit their home page or follow them on Twitter @OSGiUsers.

OSGi Users’ Forum UK also held a meeting on November 16, 2011, which coincided with the Enterprise Expert Group face-to-face meeting at Oracle in London. Thanks to Oracle for hosting the Users’ Forum meeting, which included presentations from Peter Kriens, “Services-First Migration to OSGi,” Graham Charters from IBM “Towards a Modularity Maturity Model,” and David Savage from Paremus “Help me OBR - You Are My Only Hope!” The next meeting is planned for February 2012.

OSGi Users’ Forum D.C. Metro, the newest addition to the Users’ Forum family, held its inaugural meeting on October 27 (slides). They followed the meeting with a book club meeting in December to review OSGi in Action. They have a busy schedule planned for 2012 already with their next meeting planned in January 2012.  Then in March 2012 they will join up with the OSGi DevCon conference while it’s in town and hold their meeting in conjunction with the OSGi Alliance BoF on Tuesday, March 27, at Hyatt Regency Reston. To find out more, please visit their home page and to get involved you can join for free.

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