The main outcome, according to Jacques Magen (InterInnov), who attended the event as part of the FIWARE Mundus delegation, is that FIWARE was proposed to be set up on top of existing platforms both in Canada and in the US. The objective in both cases would be to provide the FIWARE features to application developers in North America, thus promoting the use of open platforms such as FIWARE. Furthermore, teams were set up between Europe and USA with support from the European Commission and the National Science Foundation to work on common challenges, potentially leading to common research and commercial purposes.

The discussions included, among other things, the possibility to show Smart Cities applications based on FIWARE and Smart Cities platforms in different events both in Washington D.C. and Toronto (in June and October respectively). According to the FIWARE Mundus delegation, there may also be opportunities with the World Bank, whose representatives were interested in evaluating the offering of FIWARE to countries looking at developing Smart Cities; e.g. India, Central and South-America (e.g. Colombia), and others. More contacts will be made in the next weeks.

These are the first steps that, little by little, are building this international network that will make FIWARE reach the whole world. Some of those FIWARE regions will work hand in hand with the “innovation hubs” recently selected by FIWARE. All together they will form the FIWARE ecosystem under the FIWARE Mundus umbrella. 

At this stage 13 European regions have been “pre-selected” as the most likely candidates for the “FIWARE Regions” label: Helsinki (Uusimaa, Finland); Brittany, PACA, and Paris Ile de France (France); Berlin and Baden-Wurttemberg (Germany); South East Ireland; Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna (Italy); Wielkopolska (Greater Poland); Porto (Portugal); Catalonia and Canary Islands (Spain). In addition, other regions being considered include South Moravia (Czech Republic); Copenhagen region (Denmark); Picardie (France); Basque country (Spain); and Stockholm region (Sweden). “FIWARE Regions” are defined as those regions willing to set up a sustainable FIWARE ecosystem in the medium to long term, with support from regional public authorities and other relevant players in the regional Future Internet ecosystem.

Some of those FIWARE Regions will work hand in hand with the “innovation hubs” recently selected by FIWARE. All together they will form the FIWARE European ecosystem under the FIWARE Mundus umbrella.

FIWARE Mundus is also looking at international expansion and cooperation. A FIWARE node and ecosystem is currently being set up in Mexico and should be operational in Q1 2015; contacts have been established with other Latin American countries, in particular Chile and Brazil, and with other parts of the world. More to follow in the next few weeks!

Should you wish to get more information on FIWARE Mundus, to be a candidate as a FIWARE Region, to submit a proposal for the next call for innovation hubs, or to join the federation of FIWARE nodes, contact: fiware-mundus-req@lists.fiware.org. A dedicated web page is being set up at the FIWARE web site and will be available soon –we will keep you posted!