The Aim of Shinobi

What I have is not a dream, it is an ambition

I want to help people and one way I believed this could be done was to make a world class CCTV platform. One that anyone can use. Simply login to your account, add camera details, set options, and away you go. No client app installations. Viewing streams and recordings on your mobile device by simply opening a web page.

You should be able to view it on any device with a capable web browser. A base was needed to start with so I took to the internet for more answers.

After much searching one popular CCTV application born in 2003 was the primary choice but found it wasn't capable of fulfilling the role.

To get a detailed outline of the most popular solution check out "Why not just use ZoneMinder".

General issues with the present solutions

You might find the current solutions with a mix of the problems listed below.

• Poorly written code
• Missing key features
• Written in obscure or old language
• Ugly interface
• Poor maintenance
• Too expensive
• Not open source
• Requires client to install application
• Does not run on multiple platforms

I want to eliminate these issues

So I started the base of my vision. I worked on it for about 1 week alone in my dark room before I decided to one day pop open the working prototype on my brother's computer. He liked what he saw and asked me "Is this ZoneMinder?".. I gave him a big grin and said "nope".

I named it how I saw it. Shinobi (Ninja). One who watches from the shadows. Then threw it on Github and began my journey. I never really expected to make a replacement for the current self hosted solutions. It sort of just happened.

"So wait.. Shinobi is not what you wanted to make in the first place?"

Initially, no. I planned to make a cloud hosted service that would be better and more cost effective than the rest. Something that could be relied upon globally.

Shinobi is meant to be the framework of this platform. As mentioned already, no usable solution existed. So I had to make one from the beginning.

In a sense I have met the criteria of what I wanted to do. I have achieved my goal, just in a different way. It is used around the world and generally it is pretty simple for how powerful it has become.

Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the ride

Shinobi has been an amazing experience so far. I have met amazing people, learned new things and did things I never imagined. The community made it this way. Node.js made it this way. My family made it this way... and so many more.

I am loving every moment that has been and I can't wait to see what's next. Thanks to everyone for helping make Shinobi what it is and what it will become.

Cheers!