FAQs

What is Sentilo?

Sentilo is an open source sensor and actuator platform designed to fit in the Smart City or IoT architecture of any organization who looks for openness and easy interoperability. Its objective is to exploit the information “generated by the city” and the layer of sensors deployed across the ground to collect and broadcast this information. See more here.

Who is Sentilo for?

Sentilo is aimed at municipalities or organizations who need to process lots of information received from the terrain generated by heterogeneous hardware and software devices (sensors, etc.), and who want a centralized and homogeneous way of managing and distributing these data across their information systems.

It is also aimed at anyone from the IT world interested in contributing to the expansion of the “Internet of Things” and smart cities with the goal of improving citizens’ quality of life.

Who is not Sentilo for?

Sentilo is not aimed to end users: they are the ultimate beneficiaries of the services provided system, but they are not going to install the product in their workstations!

How and why was Sentilo created?

Sentilo was initially built to be used as the sensor platform for the City of Barcelona, with an aim of openness from its beginning, using only open source components. After its deployment the City Council has released the code under a free and open source software license, licensing all its rights to the Sentilo Community.

The main idea that inspired the design of this is first and foremost the desire to create a cross-platform oriented infrastructure and data management service, escaping from vertical ITC solutions organized in “silos”.

These silo solutions make cities too dependent on specific technologies, solutions or providers and create isolated compartments where the applications cannot access data from other applications. As a result, we get duplicity and multiplicity of data and infrastructures and an upward trend in investment and maintenance costs. The silo structure can only be avoided by creating horizontal and global platforms with a broad and multiorganization scope.

Why the name “Sentilo”?

The word ‘Sentilo’ means “Sensor” in Esperanto. Naming the project from an Esperanto word was chosen to reflect our intention of openness and universality in the use of Sentilo.

How can I get Sentilo?

You can find out how to download the source for Sentilo in the community area of our website or directly from GitHub.

How can I integrate my sensor or app with Sentilo ?

You should use the API for send or retrieve data with a Sentilo platform. We also provide several examples for achieving it.

Can i use Sentilo as SAAS ?

Yes, you can use it through one of its providers.

What license is used for Sentilo?

Sentilo is free and open source software, licensed under a dual licensing regime, under the EUPL 1.1 and/or LGPL3 licenses (or later versions).

Can I build a commercial product on top of Sentilo Platform?

There are no restrictions to commercial use of Sentilo, particularly building a commercial product on top of (or that uses) Sentilo: you may build and install Sentilo and sell services or license software extensions to third parties. You may also install Sentilo and provide your services on a (for payment) SaaS basis. If you distribute any Sentilo software (or any modification to the original software), you need to ensure that the end-user/client gets a copy of the source code of this software – but not of any extensions, plug-ins or applications that use the Sentilo code as a platform.

What are the future plans for Sentilo?

Barcelona City Council and all the involved community is committed to keep on improving and enlarging the functionalities of the sensor platform. For more information, have a look at Sentilo roadmap.

How and where is Sentilo tested?

Barcelona City Council has been using the platform for five years (since beginning 2013) and is committed to improve the system with different features in the next months.

Sentilo is promoted by their main sponsors and has also been tested in several cities worldwide.

Whom do I contact for support?

There are several places to obtain support for Sentilo.

The documentation area is the definitive source for information about Sentilo.
The support forum in Google Groups is a great places to ask questions. These forums are frequented by people intimately familiar with Sentilo, who are willing to address your questions.
If you think that you have found a bug in the software, or if you have a feature request, you can report these via the feature request page or the bug report page.
Commercial support for Sentilo is available from third-party companies.

How can I leave comments or give feedback on Sentilo?

You can leave comments in the general forum or more technical issues in the developer forum.

There are also two contact forms, Already using it ? to give feedback, and the general Contact form.

How do I get involved in Sentilo?

Check here

May I use the Sentilo logo on my website?

You may not use the Sentilo logo other than to reference the project (preferably with a link back to here) or any original artwork from sentilo.io, nor make or use modified versions of such artwork if not authorized by us. Contact us if you want to use any original logo, other than to reference the project, or any other artwork from our site.