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FI-Lab, the open platform to develop Future Internet applications, has been launched!

Sep 12, 2013Ecosystem

Last week we were in London presenting to the wide community of developers that got together at Campus Party Europe FI-WARE’s platform to develope with Future Internet applications, FI-Lab.

In addition, and thanks to the Hackathon we organized, we were able to observe what many entrepreneurs and developers did as they began to create their own applications with FI-WARE. First of all we want to thank all of you who participated there, it was amazing to see how, in record time, you built such creative and robust applications.

The official presentation, which took place on the main stage of the O2 in London, was given by Neelie Kroes, Vice-president of the European Commission. With her opening speech “Creating tomorrow’s Internet” Kroes introduced us to the FI-WARE project while emphasizing the need to support innovation by providing access to technologies and funding.

(..) platforms don’t build themselves. And this is where initiatives like the FI-LAB come in. Led by industry, this is a major investment in generic technology. Focusing not on specific applications: but on the building blocks essential to creating them. This is a great way to achieve that. And as of today, FI-LAB is open and accessible to everybody. Available to all to create platforms, applications, or whatever you want. And guess what? The technology is free of charge. And state-of-the-art. Think about Security and Privacy by design, Social Connected TV, Augmented Reality, Instant Mobility or even Smart Farming. You can be the first inventing the killer applications for new areas. And deploy across the whole of Europe, more than 500 million people.
Later that day Carlos Domingo, President and CEO of Telefonica R&D, explained that FI-WARE (the joint venture between the European Commision and major ICT industry players such as Telefonica, Orange, DT, Telecom Italia, IBM, Siemens, Thales, Engineering, ATOS or SAP) is Europe’s answer towards creating the “Next Computer” of the Future Internet. The objective is creating a true “Open Operating System” for that computer, as opposed to the proprietary environments offered by incumbent players.

 

He also gave some examples of what FI-WARE brings:

FI-WARE leverages on OpenStack and enhances it, not only with added-value capabilities for hosting but with a rich library of Generic Enablers that make it easier to connect to the Internet of Things, manage context events at large scale or perform BigData analysis.  
Finally, Carlos Domingo pointed out that bringing the best technology is not enough:
We need a meeting place where entrepreneurs can develop and showcase their bright innovative ideas based on FI-WARE, and application sponsors can meet them: this is going to be FI-LAB.
Commissioner Kroes mentioned FI-LAB again when she launched the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities later last week during the GSMA conference.  She explained that the key to real innovation and growth lies with entrepreneurs and startups.  FI-LAB is something “You can turn into real results, real jobs, and real innovation. European platforms helping European innovation in European cities.”
Also during her speech, Kroes stressed the fact of the €100 million that will be invested during 2014 and 2015 to fund entrepreneurs who develop applications based on FI-WARE technologies in FI-LAB.
Most importantly: you can access FI-Lab right now and see what we are talking about. The Future Internet is waiting for you there.
Enter FI-LAB at http://lab.fi-ware.eu

 

More about FI-WARE and FI-Lab and what it is all about in Carlos Domingo’s presentation “Open APIS for Open Minds” at Campus Party Europe:

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