Online shop for integrated software, hardware, and human services

Sustainable social and economic programs for aging citizens are needed to address the increase in life expectancy in developed countries. Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) services, also known as Active and Health Aging (AHA) services, is a European initiative that promotes a new era of integrated solutions that include hardware, software, and human services. One of the impediments to the adoption of these services is the lack of an economically viable marketplace. The electronic commerce (eCommerce) industry, in which buyers and sellers meet over electronic systems, can facilitate this emerging market of integrated services. We present the concept of an online store for integrated services, which enables users to connect the services available in the store to their development environment and to the infrastructure in which they are deployed, supporting the services full life cycle. This novel market-oriented approach, driven by technology and not by a specific vendor or tailored to a proprietary platform, is expected to radically improve and promote the adoption of these services. The general design approach and architecture of the online store and its capabilities are analyzed, and a specific implementation of a one-stop online shop for AAL services, named uStore, is described in depth.