Mozilla, the makers of Firefox, have an Internet-of-Things unit. Did you know that? It was a surprise to me when I heard about it, but a good surprise. We need the kind of openness that Mozilla stands for in the IoT, and I hope they can play a large role in the emerging IoT market.

This Mozilla IoT hosts a monthly event, called the “San Francisco Connected Devices Meetup“. It usually features about three speakers with various related projects, pizza, beer and networking.

I was invited to give a talk on September 27th (register here). My summary:

Johannes Ernst; UBOS and the Indie IoT

Will the IoT inevitably make us all digital serfs to a few overlords in the cloud, as Bruce Sterling predicts? Or is a more democratic, user-owned, “independent” IoT possible?

Johannes Ernst, entrepreneur and technologist with a mission, will first use the example of a Raspberry-Pi-based IoT system he built for his own backyard to discuss the architectural choices, their consequences, and the business opportunities for “Indie IoT” versus today’s typical commercial “overlord IoT” systems.

UBOS, his company’s product, is a new rolling-release Linux distro that makes it easy to install and maintain 3rd-party applications on home servers (x86, Raspberry Pi etc.) Most server administration tasks (install apps, upgrade server, encrypted off-site backup etc.) are just one command each, regardless of the complexity of the setup. It makes it possible to run IoT systems and keep all related data entirely at home, mixing and matching sensors/actuators, applications, and services according to the wishes of the user, and without being dependent on somebody else’s cloud.

Imagine if you could assemble your IoT systems freely from the components (hardware, software, services) that you like best and without lock-in or surveillance? That’s the “Indie IoT” future we’re working on.

I’m very much looking forward to it. Thanks, Lindsay and Reza, for inviting me. See you there?