Mozilla has announced it is spinning of its WebThings endeavor as a standalone open source project.
WebThings is Mozilla’s open source take on Web of Things (WoT). WoT is a set of standards aimed at combining Internet of Things (IoT) with the web, using the web as the application layer. WoT will allow IoT devices to be discoverable and linkable on the web via URLs.
With the change, “Mozilla WebThings” will become “WebThings” and the project’s homepage will move to www.webthings.io.
“Mozilla is winding down its direct investment in WebThings and is transitioning control and responsibility to the community,” writes David Bryant. “It is important this happens in a way that allows easy continued contribution to the project as an open source effort, and so all the WebThings Gateways running around the world continue to function properly. To enable that independence from Mozilla some changes will be needed in how the project is named as well as how project infrastructure operates.”
The announcement is not a surprise given Mozilla’s recent layoffs. The company has struggled to find a major profit generator outside of its search deals with Google and Bing.