FIWARE is thrilled to have been included in the recent European Commission report “Communication to the Commission – Open Source Software Strategy 2020 – 2023 – Think Open” as one of the major drivers helping to level the playing field for the use of open source across Europe and beyond.

With the report, the European Commission reinforces its internal working culture, which is already largely based on open source principles and aims to invigorate the European Union’s one-of-a-kind social market economy, promote competition and encourage SMEs to work towards the creation of innovative solutions that support common policies.

Open source plays a fundamental role when it comes to inclusivity and openness, not least in relation to finding new opportunities and transitioning into a better, safer digital environment, one that is ready for the reality of today’s global economy. FIWARE Foundation is committed to the creation of an open community, hereby aiming, together with its members, to build an open sustainable ecosystem around public, royalty-free, and implementation-driven software platform standards. It believes that standards are no longer “designed by committee” but, instead, “driven by implementation” within open communities. 

For the past four years, FIWARE has been driving the definition — through their open source implementation — of key open standards that enable the development of portable and interoperable smart solutions in a faster, easier, and affordable way, hereby avoiding vendor lock-in scenarios. FIWARE, with its long-used slogan “Open APIs for Open Minds”, therefore, perfectly echoes the sentiment of the title of the strategy, which encourages us to “Think Open”. 

Commenting on the report release, FIWARE Foundation CEO Ulrich Ahle said: 

“Open Source is the DNA of the FIWARE Community. For years, we have been following the principles of Open Source development methodology and the innovation that happens in communities. FIWARE is already becoming the global Open Source platform of choice in many domains – on which future smart solutions will be built upon – and this recognition certainly fuels our vision of placing Open Source as the forefront of the digital revolution”. 

The report highlights how the European Commission sets out to “walk the talk”, hereby not only underlining the power of open source but also encouraging the sharing and reuse of software solutions, knowledge and expertise to bring about a change in mindset when it comes to taking into consideration elements such as openness, security and sharing, and reuse, to name a few.

It is, therefore, no surprise that the Commission encourages open source use and development through FIWARE.