Building a DPWS online community

[Toby Nixon <Toby.Nixon@microsoft.com>]

Issues 25 and 57 raised the need for a discoverable mechanism to associate DPWS device and service types. I suggested that this be expanded into discussion of the need for broader support for the DPWS implementer community. I'd like to share some thoughts about this.

 

As you know, no new standards organization has been created to "own" DPWS or be devoted to developing device or service specifications that reference it. DPWS started out as a proposal for a second-generation UPnP Device Architecture, and if that path had been pursued to its conclusion, UPnP Forum would have provided the infrastructure for DCP development, ongoing interop events, device certification, cooperative marketing, and a community peer-support network. While it's still possible UPnP Forum may reference DPWS at some point in the future, UPnP will not be the only organization that references DPWS; a number of other organizations and market segments for network-connected devices are interested in referencing DPWS, particularly once it is standardized. Each of these organizations would likely provide their own IPR policies and committee structure for schema development, interops, certification programs, marketing, etc. The current standardization activity for DPWS in OASIS will not continue indefinitely; the charter calls for WS-DD to exist only long enough to complete its current work. While another OASIS TC (or continuation of WS-DD) could be chartered for a subsequent version of DPWS if needed, WS-DD and OASIS will not be the appropriate focus of an ongoing community around DPWS for activities not directly related to standardization. Some vendors may provide information about DPWS in the context of their products (such as Microsoft, with MSDN, for example), but the DPWS community will be broader than any one vendor or organization.

 

So, what should be the coordination point and place for sharing information about DPWS amongst the various organizations that will be basing work on it? What kind of things should this DPWS community provide? Here are a few things that come to mind (some already mentioned before):

 

·         A registry of known DPWS device and service types and links to their specs (as mentioned in issues 25 and 57)

·         Links to the most recent versions of DPWS and the specs it references (like the RDDL pages)

·         Links to organizations that have based work on DPWS or that have certification programs for DPWS-based devices (particular to help avoid duplicative work)

·         Links to known research projects based on DPWS

·         Links to information on known DPWS-based commercial products (even if they’re not “certified” in any way)

·         Links to known DPWS protocol stacks, device and service implementations, and development and test tools, both commercial and open source

·         Links to or downloads of white papers, Powerpoint presentations, and tutorial information about DPWS that can be used by anyone who needs to make a presentation or sell an idea

·         A blog for posting of news about DPWS standards and products, with open comments

·         An email list, newsgroup, or open blog for community-based support for DPWS implementers

o    to get answers to DPWS technical questions

o    to socialize ideas for new DPWS device classes and extensions before selecting appropriate venues for further work (although we have to be careful not to get into actual IPR contributions or standards development)

o    to collaborate on evangelism and marketing efforts, such as joining forces to make presentations at trade shows or to newly-targeted vertical opportunities

 

I’m sure you can think of other things that could be included.

 

Much of this information could be collected on a "Wiki" basis – voluntary contributions by the DPWS community, rather than having any permanent, paid staff. In fact, the DPWS page on Wikipedia would be a decent starting point, although that page would not itself be the right venue for an ongoing web presence. It appears that domain names like dpws.com and dpws.net are not actively being used (somebody owns them, but they’re probably available), so maybe we could acquire one of those for the purpose. Somebody would have to host the site, but it shouldn’t be very expensive or complicated.

 

This mechanism wouldn’t create a venue – either physical or legal – for collaborative work on service schemas or spec extensions (such as, for example, power management) or any kind of certification program. Historically, it's worked best for new specs to be developed by a group of companies who have a commercial interest, and then brought into an established standards organization such as OASIS (or another existing org that works in that area). In the current economic climate, few of us likely have the time or budget to join yet another ongoing standards organization like a “DPWS Forum”. OASIS is a fine venue to use when standardizing XML-based specs that have no other obvious home; the OASIS staff has no agenda or overarching vision, the IPR policy is straightforward and pragmatic, the processes are not cumbersome, the infrastructure is usable, they’re pretty well known and well respected in industry and government circles, they have good relationships with de jure organizations to which specs can be advanced if desired, and it’s relatively cheap compared to other places the work could be done. But there are others, and those have an interest in a particular spec should take it where they feel most comfortable rather than feeling constrained to do the work in a specific place.

 

As for certification, I don’t know if it makes sense to have a broad certification for DPWS compliance in isolation from any specific device or service type. In most cases, certification would come from the vertical org that publishes the schema for a particular class. We can talk further about what makes sense as a certification or logo vehicle for device classes that don’t have some org supporting them, if indeed it is needed at all.

 

So -- do you think it’s practical to get a simple Wiki/blog-type collaboration site set up and run without a large ongoing investment of money or time? We may be able to find someone willing to host the service at no cost in exchange for potential ad revenue or just as a contribution to the community. Would people be willing to contribute material for it? Or do you think more formal structure would be needed, with dues and staff and all those things?

 

Toby Nixon  |  Senior Standards Program Manager  |  Windows Device and Storage Technologies  |  Microsoft Corporation

toby.nixon@microsoft.com  |  www.microsoft.com | V: +1 425 706 2792  |  M: +1 206 790 6377  |  F: +1 425 708 4811