Disclosure: I worked at Mozilla with the core WebThings dev team and still collaborate with devs on this project. I don't do devel on the gateway, but I create "web things" (IoT devices) that connect to it.
I use the gateway to manage my smart home and I love it. Love the privacy. Love the rules. Love the add-ons.
Going forward, I'd like to see companies adopt it yes, but my main focus will be pushing the gateway and framework to be used for STEM education around IoT. I currently work with the https://MicroBlocks.fun team, an awesome FOSS STEM edu tool for programming microcontrollers. I drove a Mozilla Open Source Software (MOSS) support grant to fund the core MicroBlocks devs to build a "web thing" library, when at Mozilla. The combo of the two projects is awesome imho.
If you can't buy an IoT device to suit your needs, you can easily build one. :)
Excellent summary. The "oh wow this feels different" aspect of MicroBlocks comes after you try it. It makes programming microcontrollers as interactive and hands-on as building electrical circuits from discrete components. Your changes are immediate. And the live data graphing from sensors feels like a graphic voltmeter or oscilloscope. For physical computing it's simply the best learning tool I've ever encountered (note I'm an EE major, not CS). All those "real" programming languages now fall short in my view. I'm hooked.
https://iot.mozilla.org -- can easily install the WebThings Gateway on a Raspberry Pi, or in a Docker container, or CLI install to a Linux box. It runs locally in your home. No cloud account, no cloud data center dependency, command and control accessible from the web UI served up by the home gateway. Local voice commands are possible too. My "home smart home" stays in my home. :)
The Turris OS that runs on Omnia is a customized OpenWrt build that lets a user plug a USB memory stick (with the Mozilla WebThings Gateway image, and only that image on it) into the Omnia, hold down the reset button until the 4th front panel LED lights, let go, and wait until it installs and the "WebThings Gateway XXYY" SSID appears. Then connect to it and proceed with the setup process. Suggest other hardware to potentially support on Mozilla's Discourse "iot" channel. Or the mozilla-iot/gateway repo on github.
It is indeed. Mozilla's WebThings Gateway does everything locally, by default. You and your home are the center of its universe. The add-on system not only enables lots of smart home device interop, but also lets you bring in other web content from the Internet that you might want to tie into your smart home. I pull from USGS for earthquakes >5.0 and within 400km of my lat/lon. I also use my lat/lon for time/date rules, local tide charts, and local weather. A rule tells my (always on mute) Google Home speaker to announce "An earthquake >5.0..." when such an event comes in. I also love the (local) voice add-on. It uses Snips wakeword and speech-to-text and a customized-by-Mozilla intent parser and interface to the web thing API so that when you create a new thing or change a name, the local language model is updated immediately. Works on RPi3 very well. No Internet required. The Snips part of the install is currently a hack though, and broke in 0.9. If you installed using 0.7 or 0.8 it will still work. But otherwise you'll have to wait for the 0.9 installer fix.
For tech people, this is easy to use. Still some UX/UI updates needed for mainstream consumer readiness. Remaining big problem is that smart home devices don't tell you whether or not they are web of things ready (direct or via an addon). Need to check the wiki or ask online.
Mozilla hosts an https tunnel for subdomains that match YOUR-subdomain.mozilla-iot.org where users choose a unique subdomain and a cert for it is auto-installed (using LetsEncrypt) onto the RPi or Turris Omnia during first time setup. In the future once the WebThings Gateway has control over edge firewall rules, then the tunnel can go away in favor of a "hole" for 443 or a port forward rule for https access directly to the gw. Privacy risks are far reduced if we all run our own local smart home gateway in our homes.
> for easy off site access
Exactly. The WebThings Gateway on an RPi is behind a firewall. How to access it? Mozilla makes it easy for users to securely access their gateway when remote, by setting up a tunneling service for the .mozilla-iot.org subdomains that users configure during the setup process. Mozilla has to pay* for running the https tunneling services that allow this security. Mozilla wants to protect your security; they do not want your data. The subdomain enables Mozilla's setup process to download and install the cert for the subdomain you create (from LetsEncrypt) onto the gateway, so you don't have to figure it out on your own. If you have your own registered domain name and know how to install its cert and then expose and port forward 443 from your router to the WebThings gateway, Mozilla would be happy because that reduces their tunneling expense. The goal was to make it easy for users to run a secure gateway by default. But with an OpenWrt router approach, appropriate firewall rules and dynamic dns can help reduce the need for the tunneling service, yet keep things secure. Maybe eventually ordering your own complete domain could be part of the setup process, but you'd be paying some 3rd party to make that happen, whereas the subdomain approach keeps it free.
Your desire not to have to admininster OpenWrt yourself is legit. I don't either. The Mozilla WebThings Gateway integration work is being done by Mozilla so that they can offer the result to OEMs who would sell a product with it already installed, and the Mozilla team would maintain the sw. So consumers at any tech skill levels won't have to be sysadmins in order to achieve the privacy and security protections they deserve.
Try either the e-mail sender add-on or the twilio add-on, then create rules that notify you via one of those methods. Camera integration is tricky, mostly due to the lack of standards around data streams and extra sensors/actuators, dealt with in different ways by different vendors. Other binary sensors or variable sensors can be triggered easily with rules to notify you of things you care about.
Several good points. Only one aspect made me laugh. Even if I can "opkg install <pkg_name>" to run the Mozilla WebThings Gateway, I'm lazy. I'd rather buy a box that maintains my privacy and is updated periodically with security and feature enhancements. What made me laugh is that I don't fit your stereotype. I first used ddwrt around 2003 then switched to OpenWrt and convinced QCA to adopt it as the basis for QSDK when 11ac routers came out. And if all goes well with my daughter-in-law, I'll become a Grandma in 2-3 weeks. But I am looking forward to easily installing apps, especially those that respect my privacy. :)
the W3C Web of Things framework is agnostic to use cases and devices. Mozilla's WebThings framework can work in medical, industrial, etc. It's just that Mozilla's focus is to put people first. (Plus it's easiest to invite makers and community dev when contributors can use it themselves at home). All the code is open source -- I've already seen some industrial companies pick it up and customize for their needs.
the WebThings gateway is an opportunity for Mozilla to help protect privacy and security, not copy the approach of industry silo's where devices connect to the cloud. your gateway data stays local.
I use the gateway to manage my smart home and I love it. Love the privacy. Love the rules. Love the add-ons.
Going forward, I'd like to see companies adopt it yes, but my main focus will be pushing the gateway and framework to be used for STEM education around IoT. I currently work with the https://MicroBlocks.fun team, an awesome FOSS STEM edu tool for programming microcontrollers. I drove a Mozilla Open Source Software (MOSS) support grant to fund the core MicroBlocks devs to build a "web thing" library, when at Mozilla. The combo of the two projects is awesome imho.
If you can't buy an IoT device to suit your needs, you can easily build one. :)
A talk I gave in Sept shows a "walk around the house" demo at about 13:00min. It gives you a small taste of what you can do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a0gXt8m9Yw