The standards that let smart cities stand on their own two feet

Focused on sustainability, air pollution monitoring and open standards, the stories below showcase how the FIWARE Community is benefiting from the freedom and adaptability of open tech smart applications

Cities themselves may survive shocks and stresses, but their citizens and organisations often need a helping hand to get by. There are many paths to the ideal resilient city: dynamic economy models that generate sustainable growth; innovative and collaborative approaches taken by open and transparent government; inclusive and cohesive societies; solid digital infrastructures, and the intelligent use of natural resources. But we clearly have a long way to go before we arrive there.

Before they can create impactful strategies on such fronts, cities need better data and the right skills and manpower, and great freedom to implement smart technologies. To that end, cities need to collaborate with private and non-profit sectors to deliver their digital vision. Partnering up with strong institutional structures is of the essence and non-profits can play a key role in helping cities to get their digital strategy on the right track. The FIWARE Community is one of these entities making it happen. With more than 380 international members and relevant partners behind its mission, the community focuses on driving the development of a sustainable ecosystem around open source, standards-based, innovation-driven technologies on a global scale.

One may wonder why standards are important. Common standards for application programming interfaces (APIs) and data models are at the heart of platforms and digital infrastructures, enabling the interoperability and portability of solutions. In order to successfully make it into the market today, new smart services and solutions must be able to securely communicate with other services and devices, traversing a multitude of infrastructures and systems. This way, solution providers benefit from knowing that their solutions can be connected with other applications or pieces of software – already developed and widely available – or that they can replicate them for multiple customers with low adaptation costs.