ASCOM was invented in late 1997 and early 1998 by Bob Denny, when he released two commercial programs and several freeware utilities that showcased the technology.

He also induced Doug George to include ASCOM capabilities in commercial CCD camera control software.

Under the influence of Denny, George, Tim Long, and others, ASCOM developed into a set of device driver standards.

ASCOM also defines a range of optional Properties and Methods to take advantage of common features that may not be available for every manufacturer's device.

From an astronomer's point of view, it is a simple matter of installing the ASCOM platform and suitable client software; no programming is required.

ASCOM drivers allow computer-based control of devices such as planetarium software to direct a telescope to point at a selected object.

[2] The Alpaca API uses RESTful techniques and TCP/IP to enable ASCOM applications and devices to communicate across modern network environments.

This will enable ASCOM compatible devices to work across all the different operating systems including Linux and Mac OSX in near future.