OpenInfra Asia and OpenInfra Europe will foster regional resiliency and coordinate input on policy issues to ensure key open source infrastructure technologies continue to be developed in the open.
VANCOUVER, Canada, June 13, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- OPENINFRA SUMMIT — The Open Infrastructure Foundation (OpenInfra Foundation) announced today that it has opened regional hubs in Europe and Asia in an effort to promote and protect open source communities and technologies in these regions where the OpenInfra community has rapidly expanded. The Asia and Europe regions have experienced rapid growth in recent years and currently represent 32.5% and 38.8% of OpenInfra Foundation member organizations, respectively. Both regions have also seen rising challenges to open source and global collaboration.
Thierry Carrez, general manager of the OpenInfra Foundation, shared the news in the opening keynote today at OpenInfra Summit, the organization's global gathering. "The world has changed, and open source needs regional resiliency and action to ensure vital software technologies continue to be developed in the open," he said. "Key regional issues have emerged, like digital sovereignty in the EU, that have created an opportunity for OpenInfra regional hubs to facilitate collaboration and discussion, coordinate responses, and give a voice to the concerns of the OpenInfra ecosystem."
The OpenInfra Foundation is actively voicing concerns, including concerns over the current wording proposed in the EU Cyber Resilience Act with regard to open source software. It is an example of regional policies and regulations that could, whether inadvertently or intentionally, have a negative impact on open source infrastructure technologies. Other examples include proposals on regulating open source's role in artificial intelligence technologies, like ChatGPT. Although advocating for open source has always been central to the mission of the OpenInfra Foundation, establishing regional entities will lend legal standing for the OpenInfra community to participate in policy discussions and a stronger mechanism for leveraging the influence of participating organizations.
OpenInfra Asia (based in Singapore) and OpenInfra Europe (based in Belgium) share the same purpose and mission as the OpenInfra Foundation. In particular, these regional hubs allow participants to engage in focused collaboration and provide a basis for coalition between industry, academia and government. Participants in OpenInfra Asia and OpenInfra Europe will join together in:
- Advancing open source infrastructure in the region
- Discussing regional strategic issues
- Gathering regional feedback and elevating local voices
- Coordinating local communities and events
- Conducting regional business development and market research
- Providing local programs for nurturing the next generation of open source contributors
"Open source has enjoyed an age of abundance—a decade of incredible success, marked by global expansion of contributors, widespread project adoption, and a thriving ecosystem that touches nearly every continent," said Mark Collier, COO of the OpenInfra Foundation. "But now we're seeing new threats to open source coming from different regional regulations and reactionary attempts to limit who can contribute to or have access to technology. The OpenInfra community will be better able to respond rapidly and effectively to those types of threats and changes if we can act on a regional level. Creating OpenInfra Asia and OpenInfra Europe is a critical first step in what will be an evolving effort to build resiliency in our global community and to ensure that open infrastructure technology remains open to all."
"Open source is at more risk today than it has ever been before," added Jonathan Bryce, executive director of the OpenInfra Foundation. "That's the catalyst for this proactive, strategic move to embed the OpenInfra ethos and organizational framework more deeply in key regions around the world. In a changing world where open source is under serious threat, not just from proprietary companies but also from governments, we must collaborate in new ways, such as creating legal entities that give our communities a voice and a seat at the table when decisions are being made that can change the world of open source as we know it."
Any OpenInfra Foundation organizational member can participate in their respective regional hubs at no additional cost. Visit these web pages to sign up:
Founding Participating Organizations of OpenInfra Asia:
- 99cloud
- Ant Group
- AWcloud
- CDAC
- China Mobile
- China Unicom
- Coredge
- EasyStack
- H3C
- Huawei
- Inspur
- NEC
- NHN Cloud
- Nipa Cloud
- Okestro
- OneQode
- Tencent Cloud
- Wuhan Yangtze CT
- ZTE
"As a dedicated effort of collaboration among open source communities in Asia, Ant Group is very excited to see the establishment of OpenInfra Asia. Its mission is well aligned with ours: accelerating regional technology innovation with open source infrastructure software, promoting the cloud infrastructure market, and expanding ecosystem development in Asia." — Richard Bian, director of Open Source Program Office, Ant Group
"The establishment of OIF Asia will accelerate the development of virtualization and container technologies, promote deep collaboration and cooperation among Asian members, and inject new strength and vitality into the development of open source in Asia." — Zhou Junyi, general manager of cloud network and open source, Huawei
Founding Participating Organizations of OpenInfra Europe:
- Alisys
- Bitergia
- Canonical
- Cleura
- Cloud & Heat
- Cloudbase Solutions
- ComponentSoft
- Deutsche Telekom
- Elastx
- Ericsson
- Exaion
- Fairbanks
- G-Research
- Infomaniak
- OSB Alliance
- OSISM
- OVHCloud
- OW2
- Safespring
- Sardina Systems
- Schwarz IT
- Secustack
- Société Générale
- StackHPC
- Ultimum
- Virtuozzo
"Collaborative software development has radically accelerated the world's evolution to digital infrastructure platforms over the past ten years, and Ericsson is a proud participant in this effort driving the functionality needed by our Telecom and Enterprise customers. With the creation of OpenInfra Europe we will be able to focus on the unique needs and opportunities of the region and foster new collaborations across academia, government and industry to address them. Ericsson also looks forward to working with OpenInfra Europe to share the unique principles that underpin the success of open source collaboration with regulatory bodies to ensure that as we build impactful legislation to improve the safety of all Europeans, we also continue to allow open source collaboration to flourish." — Phil Robb, head of Ericsson Software Technology (EST) and general manager of Ericsson Software Technology USA, Ericsson
If your organization is interested in joining the OpenInfra Foundation, visit https://openinfra.dev/join/members/. The OpenInfra Foundation also welcomes individual members; to learn more, visit https://openinfra.dev/join/individual/.
*About the Open Infrastructure Foundation (OpenInfra Foundation)*
The OpenInfra Foundation builds communities who write open source infrastructure software that runs in production. With the support of over 110,000 individuals in 187 countries, the OpenInfra Foundation hosts open source projects and communities of practice, including infrastructure for AI, container native apps, edge computing and data center clouds. Join the OpenInfra movement: http://www.openinfra.dev
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Media Contact
Jennifer Fowler, Cathey Communications for OpenInfra Foundation, +1 865-386-6118, [email protected]
SOURCE OpenInfra Foundation
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