General Questions and Answers
General questions about OpenRemote, the project and the community.
What is OpenRemote?
OpenRemote is an open community in the automation and domotics space. We promote open standards, open collaboration, and open implementations in the field.
Who can be a member?
Anyone can be a member. Currently our community comprises professionals as well as hobbyists, and Open Source veterans from various groups. We want to grow fast and with the right expertise. If automation and domotics is something you fancy, you should consider becoming a member.
Why should I join?
The OpenRemote community is engaged in concrete programs to make concrete contributions to the field. Our discussions are focused and usually technical. If you are looking for an opportunity to learn about a technical domain by participating in it, if you are a professional looking for discussions and information, both theoretical and practical. If you are an alpha geek, who just likes learning and figuring out new stuff, you should definitely spend some time on our forums. You will feel at home in no time.
I am a vendor, can I be part of this community?
Absolutely. If you are a consumer electronics vendor, view the OpenRemote platform as a way to offer iPhone, iPad or Android panels to connect to your hardware. If you have an IP enabled gateway, we can easily integrate with it.
We currently support professional standards such as KNX and UPnP. Codes and configuration are maintained through our Online Designer. We can add support for any protocol. The OpenRemote Controller can adopt proprietary protocols and adapt to different physical media.
I am an installer, can I be part of this community?
Absolutely. If you are an installer, view OpenRemote as a way to create custom user interfaces for iPhone, iPad or Android. OpenRemote can integrate these with the hardware you use in your installations.
Deploying an OpenRemote Controller is an easy way to build state-of-the-art panels on and letting your customer assemble his/her own. We let you manage your customer accounts through our online tools. You will be able to remotely tweak user interfaces such as changing layouts, add and remove buttons and change protocol configuration details.
Our goal for professional installers is to enable you to manage higher number of customers with a lower cost per customer.
Is OpenRemote only for homes or can it be used in commercial/industrial installations also?
The OpenRemote platform is suitable for both residential and commercial installations. A lot of our community approaches automation from residential perspective, using OpenRemote as a test bed for automating their homes. However, OpenRemote Inc. is engaged in commercial installations as well as residential. Our technology is built with redundancy and fail-over capabilities in mind and therefore addressing high-availability requirements often met with commercial projects.
I want to help, where do I start?
The best place to start is to introduce yourself on the forums. Let us know what aspect of the project you're interested in helping with and we can get you started.
See Also
