Open Home Foundation ‐ Device Database
This is where we are currently sharing our vision and goals for the Open Home Foundation "Device Database", including all the major decisions made and how to further contribute to this initiative.
Note
This is a work in progress. Please reach out to us in Discord if you wanted to know more or want to get actively involved in the conversation.
We are going to move this page to its final location once we have our framework ready.
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Striving for a Single Source of Truth: The Device Database will be built as an unbiased and trusted repository for smart home devices. It will strive for comprehensiveness and aim to be evergreen, accurately reflecting the evolving smart home ecosystem. We are committed to a process of continuous improvement on its journey to ultimately becoming the single source of truth. We are aware this is not an easy endeavor but are committed to learning and improving along the way.
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Enabling Informed Choice: The Device Database will be designed to empower users by surfacing all relevant variables for a decision. It will always aim for objectivity, presenting facts without judgment. Our guiding philosophy is that there are no "good" or "bad" devices — only different capabilities, compatibilities, trade-offs, and requirements for users to evaluate in order to take an informed decision.
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Human-Centric & Meaningful: This Device Database is being built for people like you, not just as a mere collection of manufacturer specifications. What we consider "meaningful" is not carved in stone; it is an evolving concept that will be shaped by community feedback and real-world needs. We will prioritize capturing user-relevant information, starting with concepts like privacy implications, long-term battery performance, and the level of home access a device requires.
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Sustainable & Principled: We will build the database to be scalable and sustainable, operating efficiently within the Open Home Foundation's resources. Its integrity is a foundational commitment: core principles will not be compromised, and the data will always remain independent of commercial influence.
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A Communal Effort: The database is envisioned as a living project, built by and for the community. We will develop simple and effective validation and contribution systems to encourage broad participation. We invite everyone to help enrich the database, guiding its growth into the foundational resource for the smart home ecosystem and single source of truth.
We are taking an iterative approach for launching the Device Database. This means that the final product will be shaped and refined as we build and progress. While this emergent process means we don't have a final blueprint, we have established a clear target scope and a phased roadmap. The following milestones detail the objectives for each phase:
This initial phase is focused on building and validating the core foundation. While gathering and structuring initial device data from our consenting users it allows us to stress-test, uncover first edge cases and further refine before heading towards public-facing interfaces, i.e. releasing the Device Database to everyone for consumption and further enrichment.
Note
This is what we are currently working on.
2. MVP
Leveraging the insights from the Foundational MVP, this phase will focus on launching the first public, consumable version of the Device Database. The primary goals are to deliver initial value to our users and further establishing a feedback loop. While the final scope of the initial release is flexible, it will be defined by a minimum viable set of device information and ways to interact with it. A core objective for this MVP is to also include an initial system that allows our community and the public to begin validating data and contributing to the database.
| The MVP should | Why? |
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| Have an opt-in and opt-out for submitting your HA device info to the device database. | We need user's permission for the HA instance to send device information to the database with a strict privacy focus in place. |
| Have a public consumable interface for the database. | We need to share the device information collected as soon as possible to create value for our community and public audience. |
| Have first 2-3 metrics we believe are going to be useful for consumption. | It will show the guiding principle of how the device database will be oriented going further. |
| Have a way to make the database economically sustainable. | To remain sustainable we need to evaluate measures in place to make that happen. For now, (optional) affiliate links displayed on the public device page might be an option. |
| Allow everyone to validate the information submitted about any device | We need to avoid a funnel for moderation, plus the bias that comes with it. We need to find a way to allow people to e.g. +1 and -1 to the information provided or provide more context. |
| Allow everyone to enrich the information by e.g. art work | In addition to having valid data we also aim to have it appealing for consumption. This includes for instance having a nice product image. |
For now, our focus is on releasing and analyzing the results of the Foundational MVP as a baseline for the initial MVP thereafter. The insights we gather, coupled with continuous community feedback, will directly inform and guide the further development.
- Once available (we are going to announce it), please opt in to start contributing your (anonymous) device information to the Device Database. Doing so will enable your Home Assistant instance to regularly submit your device information according to a publicly available submission protocol. Like with all other analytics data, we take privacy seriously and don't use / process personal identifiable data. Rest assured, you can opt out again at any time.
Is available here.