What is meant by Owin based application?

Question

I am very new in software world , and my question may sound stupid , but i am very confused in the topic owin.

Owin is a way to decouple host and application that what i know.

My question is when do we say an application an owin based application , it is said that an owin application can be self hosted like from an console application. 

If i use Microsoft.Owin which is Microsoft way of implementing owin called as Katana , like Micosoft.Owin.Security (Let's call it, OAuth owin middleware ) in my web API, then does my web API becomes owin based Application and i can host it anywhere?? obviously not , web API depends on system.dll.

How to utilize the concept to its fullest?

How to create a owin component that can be hosted on any platform but at the same time IIS based application like (MVC, Web API)  can use that component.

 

Note:-Please Read my question carefully before answering.