[Fiware] Fwd: GREAT SUCCESS: FIWARE Context Broker technology selected as CEF Building Block

[Juanjo Hierro]

Dear all,

   It is my great pleasure to communicate to you that the the FIWARE 
Context Broker technology was finally selected by unanimous decision by 
representatives of the EU Member States in the CEF Experts Group meeting 
that took place last Friday.  We haven't yet received an official 
communication from the EC, so we will have to wait for it before 
communicating this officially to the outside, but we know the results 
thanks to people who attended the meeting.  I also had the opportunity 
to confirm this during a conversation yesterday evening with the main 
CEF Architect, Joao Rodrigues-Frade.

   The maturity of the technology (ranked with the highest score by CEF 
Architecture experts) and the recognition about the potential key role 
it can play helping to materialize the EU Digital Single Market strategy 
were considered main arguments in favor of this decision.

   Certainly the position of EU Member State representatives during the 
discussion has been key and, here, we would like to give a big thanks to 
all of you who have been decisive during these last weeks, lobbying in 
favor of this decision in front of representatives of several EU member 
state representatives. You don't know how proud I feel of the so 
positive reaction and attitude and the good work demonstrated by members 
of the FIWARE Community, in most cases facing the initial challenge of 
finding out whom to contact when there was so little information.   This 
is a rather important sign that there is a true Community behind FIWARE 
with a great potential and a great power to mobilize and change things, 
ultimately deliver impact.

Maybe I'll forget some names here, apologies if that happens, but I wish 
to name some of the people who has helped us to make this happen (I 
order them by alphabetical order of their countries): Pieter Ballon and 
Davor Meersman (Belgium), Krunoslav Hrnjak, Darko Gebaei and Matija Zulj 
(Croacia), Grete Gutmann (Estonia), Ilkka Lakaniemi, Chandra Challagonda 
and Seppo Haataja (Finland), Judith Stiekema and Francois Richard 
(France), Euripides Petrakis (Greece), Jim Clarke and John Delaney 
(Ireland), Dario Avallone, Lanfranco Marasso, Andrea Cruciani and 
Giovanni Riganti (Italy), Tom Willebrandts and Jeroen Moonen 
(Netherlands), Gard Jenssen and Arne Berre (Norway), Pawel Swiatek and 
Tomasz Mazuryk (Poland), Paulo Calçada, Margarida Campolargo and Rui 
Costa (Portugal), Cristian Dascalu (Romania) and Matic Šerc 
(Slovenia).   Angeles Tejado and the rest of the FIWARE Press Office 
team who helped to create the list of members of the FIWARE Community 
that could help us in this task force.   Last but not least, Martin 
Brynskov (OASC chairman) for the support from the OASC initiative.  A 
big thank you to all of you.

   Of course, also a big thank you to members of the BoD for their 
support in all discussions with the EC, particularly to our chairman, 
Hubert Tardieu.

   Once more, I would like to underline the relevance of this decision. 
The CEF and Horizon 2020 programmes are probably the biggest programmes 
on which the EC relies on when trying to materialize its Digital Single 
Market strategy.   While Horizon 2020 is mostly focused on research 
activities, the CEF programme is not research but tries to build the 
foundation for actual digital services in the EU that can work 
cross-border.

   The selection of the FIWARE Context Broker component as CEF Building 
Block will certainly give a boost to adoption of FIWARE by Public 
Administrations in the EU.   Actually, Public Administrations of Member 
States have to use CEF Building Blocks when building digital services 
that have to work cross-border.   The CEF Program mobilizes a 
significant amount of grants that are given away to Public 
Administrations that put in place projects dealing with deployment of 
Digital Service Infrastructures based on CEF Building Blocks.   However, 
influence is even higher because, once adopted for cross-border digital 
services, why not to use them for other kind of services?  In this 
respect, we believethat it should also definitively help to give a push 
to adoption of OASC principles among Smart Cities.   Because the FIWARE 
Context Broker technology will become a CEF Bulding Block, it will be 
much justifiable to incorporate requirements about incorporation of 
FIWARE NGSI compliant products in public tenders.

   Last but not least, we also believe that this would, together with 
the other references already accumulated, be instrumental in pushing the 
adoption of FIWARE NGSI as a mean to accelerate digitalization in other 
sectors like Smart Industry and Smart Agrifood.

   Let's celebrate this great success!

   Cheers,

-- 
JuanjoHierroEmailSignature
Juanjo Hierro 	
	
Chief Technology Officer
FIWARE Foundation 	
	FIWARE Foundation
email: juanjose.hierro at fiware.org
www: http://fiware.org
twitter: @JuanjoHierro @FIWARE 	
	


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