Life at Eclipse

Musings on the Eclipse Foundation, the community and the ecosystem

Archive for the ‘Foundation’ Category

Introducing Oniro: A Vendor Neutral, Open Source OS for Next-Gen Devices

It’s a rare event when a new operating system comes along. And it’s even rarer to have the opportunity to influence the direction of that OS at its earliest stages. So I’m delighted to tell you that today we are announcing a new working group and top-level project that gives you that opportunity. The Oniro community will nurture and evolve the Oniro operating system, a transparent, vendor-neutral, and independent OS for the next generation of distributed systems.

The Oniro OS will provide a true, community-driven open source solution that runs on a wider spectrum of devices than today’s operating systems. And it will make it far easier to integrate different types of next-gen hardware and software.

Architected to Go Beyond Today’s Operating Systems

The Oniro OS can run on more devices than current operating systems because it features a multi-kernel architecture:

  • A Linux Yocto kernel allows the OS to run on larger embedded devices, such as Raspberry Pi-class devices 
  • A Zephyr kernel allows the OS to run on highly resource-constrained devices, such as a coffee maker or a thermostat

With the ability to run the same OS on different classes of devices, Oniro will provide an ideal solution to support the future of IoT, machine economy, edge, mobile, and other next-gen devices:

  • Consumers and adopters of the Oniro OS will have a more seamless experience than they have with the current generation of operating systems.
  • Devices will be able to directly connect to one another and share data, enabling a much higher degree of interoperability than is possible today.
  • Data exchanged between devices can flow directly to one another rather than always being shared via the cloud, enabling low latency architectures which are also inherently more secure and private. 

We expect the initial use cases for Oniro will be in the IoT and industrial IoT domains with applications for mobile devices coming later as the community evolves, grows, and establishes its roadmap.

Enabling the Global Ecosystem for OpenHarmony

Oniro is an independent open source implementatio of OpenAtom’s OpenHarmony. To deliver on the promise of Oniro, the community will deliver an independent, but compatible implementation of the OpenHarmony specifications, tailored for the global market. OpenHarmony is based on HarmonyOS, a multi-kernel OS that was developed by Huawei and contributed to the OpenAtom Foundation last year. In the future Oniro will also deliver additional specifications to help drive global adoption.

By creating a compatible implementation of OpenHarmony, the Oniro community can ensure that applications built for Oniro will run on OpenHarmony and vice versa. This interoperability will allow the Oniro community to create a global ecosystem and marketplace for applications and services that can be used across both operating systems, anywhere in the world. 

Join an Innovative Open Source Community

I truly believe that Oniro is open source done right. It’s a huge opportunity to build an operating system that rethinks how devices across many different device classes can interoperate in a secure and privacy-preserving way. 

Because Oniro’s evolution is being guided by an open and vendor-neutral community using the Eclipse Development Process, openness and transparency are a given. This will go a long way towards building the engagement and stakeholder trust necessary to create the global ecosystem.

The founding members of the Oniro Working Group include telecom giant, Huawei, Arm software experts Linaro, and industrial IoT specialists Seco. As more organizations become aware of Oniro, we expect the community to encompass organizations of all sizes and from all industries. 

I strongly encourage everyone with an interest in next-gen devices — corporations, academics, individuals — to take the opportunity to get involved in Oniro in its earliest stages. To get started, join the Oniro conversation by subscribing to the Oniro working group list.

Written by Mike Milinkovich

October 26, 2021 at 8:01 am

Posted in Foundation, Open Source

Tagged with , , ,

Eclipse Foundation Projects are OpenChain Conformant

Today we announced that the Eclipse Foundation is the first open source foundation to confirm its open source development process conforms with the OpenChain ISO 5230 international standard for open source license compliance. This means that every Eclipse Foundation project is being developed under a process which conforms to the ISO 5230 standard. The announcement is great news for our open source software contributors, users, adopters, and stakeholders globally.

The OpenChain ISO 5230 standard is officially known as the OpenChain 2.1 ISO/IEC 5230:2020 standard, and is maintained by the OpenChain Project. Its goal is to provide a clear and effective process management standard, so that organizations of all sizes, in all industries, and in all markets can benefit from a more efficient and effective open source supply chain.  

The time and effort we put into documenting that our existing development processes comply with the OpenChain ISO 5230 standard will help strengthen global supply chain integrity, and showcases our commitment to supporting our members and all of our projects’ downstream adopters.

Supported by Leading Organizations Globally

Before it became an official ISO/IEC standard in December 2020, the OpenChain initiative was the de facto standard for several years. The standard was developed based on the contributions of more than 100 project participants, and supported by organizations including Arm, BMW Car IT, Bosch, Cisco, Comcast, Ericsson, Facebook, Fujitsu, Google, Hitachi, Huawei, Microsoft, MOXA, OPPO, Panasonic, Qualcomm, Siemens, Sony, Toshiba, Toyota, and Uber. 

The breadth, depth, and diversity of organizations involved in developing the OpenChain ISO 5230 standard clearly demonstrate the importance with which the initiative is viewed across industries. The availability of the official, published standard is expected to increase conformance from hundreds of organizations to thousands. But to my knowledge, the Eclipse Foundation is the first open source foundation that has done the work necessary to document that all of our projects are developed under an OpenChain conformant process. This is an important milestone for both the Eclipse Foundation and for the OpenChain standard and its community.

Learn More and Get Involved

Because the OpenChain ISO 5230 standard is open, everyone with an interest in the initiative can engage with the community, share their knowledge, and contribute to the future of the standard. 

Follow the links below to learn more:

Written by Mike Milinkovich

October 19, 2021 at 9:46 am

Posted in Foundation, Open Source

Tagged with ,

Eclipse IoT: 10 Years of Connecting the World One Device at a Time

It’s been 10 years since the Eclipse IoT Working Group was first established as the M2M Industry Working Group. I want to sincerely thank everyone that has helped make Eclipse IoT the leading community for open source IoT technology innovation and collaboration.

To celebrate this anniversary and a decade of achievements in open source IoT technologies, the Eclipse IoT community has a number of initiatives planned over the coming weeks. Keep an eye on the Eclipse IoT website, our blogs, newsletter, social posts, and your email for more information about planned activities, commemorative content, and tributes to key community achievements.

Powering the World’s Leading Commercial IoT Solutions

Today, the Eclipse IoT ecosystem is the largest open source IoT community in the world with 47 working group members, 47 projects, 360 contributors, and more than 32 million lines of code.

It’s impossible to overstate the impact this fast-growing community has had on commercial adoption of IoT solutions on a global scale. With dozens of IoT projects across device, gateway, cloud, security, edge, and other domains, the Eclipse IoT ecosystem provides easy access to all of the building blocks needed to develop end-to-end IoT solutions.

This has all been made possible by our community members. At this 10 year milestone, we want to recognize two founding members of the original working group—IBM and Eurotech—that continue to actively contribute to, and drive, Eclipse IoT technologies. Over the years, these innovators have been joined by dozens of additional member organizations, large and small, all of whom see the value that open innovation and collaboration bring to their organizations.

In addition to the original founding members, the current Eclipse IoT ecosystem now includes globally recognized players such as Bosch.IO, Red Hat, Huawei, Intel, Nokia, SAP, and Siemens, as well as smaller industrial IoT (IIoT) specialists such as Aloxy, Cedalo, itemis, and Kynetics; and edge IoT innovators such as ADLINK Technology and Edgeworx.

This broad and diverse mix of Eclipse IoT ecosystem participants has led to an extremely vibrant community that has helped drive commercial innovation and adoption at scale. As our IoT case studies highlight, Eclipse IoT members of all sizes and types are benefitting from new relationships, new business and market opportunities, and faster growth.

A Brief Word About Our IoT & Edge Research

Our 2021 IoT & Edge Computing Commercial Adoption Survey confirms that organizations clearly recognize the value of open source technologies for IoT solutions. Nearly 40 percent of survey respondents are using or evaluating the use of open source solutions exclusively, while another 35 percent are looking at a mix of open source and proprietary components. If you haven’t had a chance to read the full survey report, you can download it here

We recently launched the annual  IoT & Edge Developer Survey. Be sure to participate in what has become one of the leading research reports within the IoT and Edge Computing industries. Participate now

Congratulations to 10 Great Years and Here’s to the Next Decade!

I truly believe these first 10 years are just the beginning of what the dedicated and growing Eclipse IoT community will achieve through open source innovation and collaboration. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what comes next.

To learn more about the benefits of membership in Eclipse IoT, visit the working group website.

Written by Mike Milinkovich

September 23, 2021 at 12:15 pm

Posted in Foundation

IoT and Edge Developers: Let Your Voices Be Heard

Today, the Eclipse IoT and Edge Native Working Groups have launched the 2021 IoT and Edge Developer Survey. This is the seventh year for our annual survey, which has become one of the most widely referenced technical surveys within the IoT & Edge computing industry.

This year’s survey expands on previous editions to be more inclusive of trends in edge computing technologies. Our goal is to present a better understanding of the challenges developers face within both sectors, and to provide insights into the technical issues faced by their respective developer communities around the world. 

We welcome your participation. Your input will help IoT and edge ecosystem stakeholders with the data to align their strategies with latest trends and apply investments where needed most. Start the survey now.

You Can Influence Industry Direction

Developers, service providers, technology manufacturers, and  adopters within the IoT & edge ecosystem can all influence industry direction through survey participation. Last year’s survey received more than 1,600 responses, with the results being shared by more than 20 media outlets.

The 2020 IoT Developer Survey results revealed that IoT and edge application development is increasing at a rapid pace, fueled by growth in investments into predominantly industrial markets. It also indicated  that smart agriculture, industrial automation, and automotive are key target industries for application development.

Our expectation for the 2021 survey is that it will offer even more visibility around IoT & edge development trends, and what those trends mean to stakeholders. The survey results will also be used to help the Eclipse IoT and Edge Native Working Groups with their open source roadmaps as they work to address the evolving needs for IoT and edge development tools, architectures, deployment technologies, security, connectivity, and other requirements along the edge-to-cloud continuum.

The Developer Survey Complements the Commercial Adoption Survey

The results of the IoT and Edge Developer Survey will help complete the picture painted by our recent 2021 IoT and Edge Commercial Adoption Survey. That survey found that IoT and edge computing technologies are being adopted at an accelerated rate by a growing number of organizations. The results also revealed that 74 percent of organizations factor open source into their deployment plans, a 14 percent increase over the 2019 IoT Commercial Adoption Survey results.

With a deeper understanding of the unique challenges faced by IoT and edge developers and the latest commercial adoption trends, the entire ecosystem is better informed and better able to meet the growing demand for IoT and edge solutions.

Complete the IoT and Edge Developer Survey by October 5

The 2021 IoT and Edge Developer Survey is open through October 5. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey now, while it’s top of mind.

As usual, the survey report will be published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which means that the entire IoT and edge ecosystem can benefit from the insights it provides. Stay tuned for additional blog posts and promotional activities once the report is available.

Written by Mike Milinkovich

August 26, 2021 at 8:05 am

Posted in Foundation, Open Source

Social Media Guidelines for Community Review

All of us at the Eclipse Foundation are very proud of the fact that the many thousands of individuals who collaborate across our many channels have always communicated in a very professional, respectful, and welcoming manner. It’s particularly gratifying for me that, while we’ve had a Community Code of Conduct for years, we’ve received very few complaints.

However, even our most effective policies need to be updated to reflect the way our community, and the channels we use to communicate, are evolving. Recently, we published a new Communication Channel Guidelines document. Our next significant update is to draft a set of social media guidelines. The purposes of these social media guidelines are to provide guidance to the many community members who represent our projects, working groups, and events through various social media channels. I encourage all community members to review our proposed social media guidelines and provide constructive, actionable feedback on the content. We’re collecting community input until July 12 at 11:59 PM PT through GitLab.

With our extensive use of social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Slack, and engagement in online conversations based on blogs, YouTube videos, news articles, Reddit posts, and wikis, it’s extremely important that everyone officially representing the Eclipse Foundation adheres to a consistent set of responsible and professional behaviors across all channels.

Ongoing Improvements in Policies and Processes

Our proposed guidelines for social media communications are the first step in a larger effort to better clarify how the standards and responsibilities outlined in the Community Code of Conduct apply to the various aspects of “life at the Eclipse Foundation.”

Over the coming months, we’ll be providing additional guidelines related to our code of conduct. In the spirit of the open collaboration and full transparency that we all value so highly, we’ll keep you up to date on our latest proposed guidelines and processes as they become available for review.

Written by Mike Milinkovich

June 28, 2021 at 9:48 am

Posted in Foundation