The open source API platform FIWARE — which, to date, has released 42 standardized software components aimed at helping startups and enterprise build the next generation of smart applications and services for cities, industries, e-health or agribusiness — has today announced the formation of the open FIWARE Foundation.

The open FIWARE Foundation includes membership from the current FIWARE Core Industry Group (Atos, Engineering, Orange and Telefonica) and will be joined by other governing members at a FIWARE Founders Forum in June (to be held in Vienna). The Foundation will support the growth of the FIWARE platform as an open source project, and be governed by a Board of Directors and CEO, serving the broader FIWARE community.

The Foundation will bring support to FIWARE activities including the continuing technical evolution and support of the platform that is necessary for the uptake in the smart cities, industrial Internet of Things and agri-food sectors, among others. FIWARE established its independent open community last year to support members to adopt best open source practices based on openness, transparency and meritocracy. This way FIWARE will become the open source community of reference for setting the platform de-facto standards used when developing sensor-enabled, data-driven, smart applications and services.

“So far we have seen some strong use cases of FIWARE creating value for startups and enterprise working in smart cities, but now we are seeing that extend to the agribusiness and other sectors,” said FIWARE Chief Architect Juanjo Hierro. “FIWARE is being recognised as the ideal platform for businesses who want to scale their applications so that they can meet needs of diverse customers across Europe and around the world. It is also emerging as the Industry Data Platform which can drive the digitization of the Industry sector.”

“Startups and enterprise users need the confidence of working with an open source platform, where they know they will not be locked into one vendor’s infrastructure as they build the next generation of applications and services for our cities, the industrial sector or in agriculture,” added Stefano de Panfilis from Engineering, one of the companies establishing the FIWARE Foundation.

During the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where the FIWARE Foundation is being launched by the FIWARE Core Industry Group partners with the support of the European Commission, several startups are already demonstrating their commercial products built off the FIWARE platform. Showcased in the GSMA’s Innovation City, three agribusiness startups are using FIWARE to create smart farm management tools, including automated crop irrigation systems, smart livestock feed monitors, and a regional farm monitoring system that generates alerts for crop-destroying pests. Another exhibit is showcasing a car navigation tool that gives directions from a driver’s position direct to an available car parking space, based on real-time open data information published by cities using FIWARE’s standard APIs.

FIWARE is today a vibrant community of more than 5000 people from industry and the public sector, large companies as well as SMEs and startups, involving developers and users of the business and the public sector. “The move to establish the FIWARE Foundation is the next stage in our growth as an open source community,” said Hierro.

Further information:

FIWARE Press Office https://www.fiware.org/press-office/

Contact Email: fiware-press-req@lists.fi-ware.org