Linux Foundation Europe Launches to Foster European Open Source Collaboration and Innovation 

DUBLIN, Sept. 14, 2022 -- Linux Foundation Europe launches today with a dozen members, the intent to form a disruptive inaugural project, and original research offering new insights into the European dynamics of open source. Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, Linux Foundation Europe is led by Gabriele Columbro as General Manager. Columbro will continue to serve as the Executive Director of the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS).

Linux Foundation Europe's mission is to accelerate the growth of thriving open collaborative efforts focused on challenges and opportunities of all European constituencies, from individuals to public and private sectors, while providing an on-ramp for European projects and companies to succeed and collaborate on a global scale.

"The Linux Foundation has done a phenomenal job bringing together the private sector and individual contributors on a global scale over the last two decades. As a native-born Italian raised in the thriving European open source community of the early 2000s, I am thrilled to focus our attention on long-standing challenges and opportunities we can help unlock in Europe through open collaboration," said Gabriele Columbro, general manager, Linux Foundation Europe.

Inaugural members of Linux Foundation Europe include at Platinum level: Ericsson; at Gold Level: Accenture; at Silver level: Alliander, Avast, Bosch, BTP, esatus, NXP Semiconductors, RTE, SAP, SUSE, and TomTom; Associate level: Bank of England, OpenForum Europe, OpenUK and RISE Research Institute of Sweden. Participation in Linux Foundation Europe is open to any organization and free for existing Linux Foundation members.

Linux Foundation Europe will enable open collaborative projects to be hosted directly in European territory. Its inaugural project, the Open Wallet Foundation (OWF), just announced yesterday its intent to form. OWF is a new collaborative effort established to develop a digital wallet engine supporting interoperability for a wide range of use cases. The OWF initiative benefits from strong support, including leading companies across technology, public sector, and industry vertical segments.

Linux Foundation Europe's focus for the remainder of 2022 and into 2023 will be increasing global participation by establishing projects among individuals, companies, and organizations committed to open source software, standards, and data innovations that are aligned and have shared missions. LF Europe is designed to enable collaboration by providing the structure for technology collaboration within the unique European model.

"I'm delighted the Linux Foundation is supporting open source collaboration across the European market. Regional collaboration is important, and the Linux Foundation is positioned to help elevate European open source efforts to de facto standards on a global scale," said Jim Zemlin, executive director, Linux Foundation.

While open source collaboration is a global phenomenon impacting industries in all parts of the world, in order to better understand the regional dynamics of open source and European priorities, Linux Foundation Europe partnered with Linux Foundation Research and 13 other European entities, to explore the state of open source from a European perspective, focusing on government, enterprise and non-profit initiatives.

Results of The World of Open Source: 2022 Europe Spotlight research were released today and key insights include:

• Open Source is widely recognized across countries and industries as a prime mechanism to deliver innovation.
• The public sector is not leveraging the full power of open source collaboration to create collective value and advance the ambitious vision of the digital commons.
• An imbalance between consumption and contribution policies challenges open source ecosystem sustainability.

Funded by Linux Foundation Europe, this research was led by LF Research in collaboration with FINOS, LF Training & Certification, and LF Public Health. Additional support was provided by several organizations across the non-profit, for-profit, and academic sectors including Codemotion, Esade, Friedrich Alexander University, Institut de Govern i Polítiques Públiques (IGOP) de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, OpenForum Europe, Sailboard, Scott Logic, TU/Berlin, TU/Eindhoven, TODO Group Europe Chapter, Università di Roma Tre, and the University of Southampton.

About Linux Foundation Europe

The Linux Foundation and Linux Foundation Europe together are supported by more than 3000 members internationally. This expansion highlights the Linux Foundation's commitment towards growing a truly global, diverse and inclusive institution to continue transparently advancing Open Source growth and to facilitate regional—global collaboration. The Linux Foundation is the world's leading home for collaboration on open source software, hardware, standards, and data. Linux Foundation projects are critical to the world's infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, ONAP, Hyperledger Foundation, PyTorch, RISC-V, and more. Linux Foundation Europe methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users, and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration.

Source: Linux Foundation