Sometimes there's a little something extra exciting in the world of Web-based real time communications (WebRTC), and this was one of those events. Ericsson, who has been right on the front lines of WebRTC's growth almost since Google and Mozilla got started with it, announced that two of its biggest WebRTC developments—the Web browser known as Bowser and the OpenWebRTC framework that underscores it—would be made available as free, open source tools for users to get behind.
This is actually a pretty big step for several reasons. Perhaps the biggest such reason is that Bowser is currently the only WebRTC-capable browser that can run on iOS, according to reports, giving Apple users a chance to get in on the growing WebRTC phenomenon. Chrome and Firefox for Android, meanwhile, have the support largely built in. But that's not the only reason this is a major event; OpenWebRTC—as noted previously, the framework on which Bowser rests—offers some significant possibility for WebRTC to go beyond the browser app and into the native app as well using protocols and application programming interfaces (APIs) that are currently being used in browsers.
Ericsson Research reportedly made the move to open source in a bid to speed development in the field by offering developers more options and flexibility, a bid that comes at the same time as measures from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to standardize the APIs and protocols currently being used. Ericsson Research's Stefan Alund, who serves as the company's research manager, offered up some comment as to why the move to open source was made, noting that Bowser's implementation has been eagerly sought by a variety of parties, so the move to open source would no doubt be well received. Alund continued, saying “The WebRTC standard is still evolving and developers are finding news ways of using the technology every day. Our engineers have built OpenWebRTC in a way that makes it super-simple to modify and extend, leaving room for even more experimentation with API's and new features.”
While this seems like mostly an altruistic move on Ericsson's part, there could be more afoot than that. Many of the standards and protocols about WebRTC, as noted previously, are still being standardized. If Ericsson can get some of its material in on the standardization rolls, that would likely prove valuable in the end. If a large number of developers are using Ericsson's material, meanwhile, said developers might let the W3C and the IETF know that that's the case, and that standardizing Ericsson material might well make sense anyway given the wide use. These are just possibilities, of course, and in the short term there should be substantial benefit as companies put these new tools to work. Given that Bowser was reportedly discontinued back in February, however, Ericsson might have regarded this simply as an easy way to build some good will in the developing public's eye.
Only time will tell just what comes out of this move, but there are likely some very happy WebRTC developers out there right now who have better access than ever to both Bowser and OpenWebRTC, two tools that might pay off big in WebRTC development.
Edited by
Maurice Nagle
