International. ONVIF unveiled the implementation of open source development to create its network interface specifications for physical security technology. The move will streamline administrative and collaborative processes while leveraging the collective ingenuity of the global developer community.
ONVIF's interoperability specifications are already publicly available as open standards and are widely used as common communication interfaces between devices and software clients, such as IP surveillance cameras, video management software, and physical access control systems from different manufacturers.
Using GitHub, an online open source development platform will enable easier contribution and collaboration on ONVIF specifications by applying state-of-the-art software development tools for specification engineering. This will allow engineers and developers of security software, IoT, Artificial Intelligence, cloud services and other industries, to contribute new ideas and proposals, stimulating greater interoperability of features and new interface specifications that will help ONVIF continue to contribute to these industries. Other important aspects of ONVIF, such as the development of ONVIF profiles and testing tools, the process of submitting compliant products, the activities of ONVIF committees and working groups, and ONVIF's membership and governance structure remain unchanged.
"The data that powers our businesses and homes is based on standardized, feature-rich communication pathways for interoperability, and ONVIF will continue to evolve to provide those pathways," said Per Björkdahl, Chair of the ONVIF Steering Committee. "Augmenting our open source development methods adds a collaborative and convenient platform through which innovative ideas can be discussed and implemented and alleviate many of the administrative burdens that are inherent in the standards development process."
Document source files related to the ONVIF specification, including schema files, which describe the XML framework of ONVIF-specific features and functions, will be available on GitHub. The ONVIF Technical Committee will continue to govern the integration of new technical proposals and, once approved in accordance with the ONVIF Membership Rules, these will be published on the ONVIF website. All contributors must sign an ONVIF Contributor License agreement, and any changes that are ultimately accepted by the ONVIF Technical Committee will be licensed to ONVIF.
Throughout its 11-year history, ONVIF has developed several profiles, which are groupings of certain functionalities derived from the established specifications of the ONVIF network interface, which allow the performance of functions established for common uses: Profile S for video transmission; Profile G for video recording and storage; Profile C for physical access control; Profile Q for quick installation, Profile A for wider physical access control settings, and Profile T for advanced video streaming. While profiling will not be part of the open source strategy, ONVIF broadly expects that specification contributions made through open source will support the development of future profiles.
