Leading open source foundation aims to grow its ecosystem and advance strategic open source projects with international impact
BRUSSELS, May 12, 2020 -- The Eclipse Foundation, one of the world’s largest open source software foundations, today announced it is cementing its commitment to global expansion by establishing itself as a European-based organization. Through the creation of Eclipse Foundation AISBL based in Brussels, the international non-profit association will be uniquely positioned to leverage its recent international growth and foster global industry collaboration on open source projects in strategic technologies, such as the cloud, edge computing, artificial intelligence, connected vehicles, telecommunications, and the Internet of Things. With this move, the Eclipse Foundation, which is already the largest open source organization in Europe, aims to build on its existing international membership base to accelerate the growth of its open ecosystem of developers, companies, and public sector entities collaborating to advance technologies that are expected to have a major impact on global economies.
”Over the last several years, the Eclipse Foundation has grown its membership with technology leaders from around the world, particularly in Europe,” said Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation. “Open source is driving international innovation and collaboration, and has become strategic to European industry. It was an easy decision to focus more resources on this critical geography while continuing to welcome and support new members from around the globe. From our new base in Europe, we look forward to continuing to foster the growth of a global, sustainable open source ecosystem that delivers broad benefits to developers and the many industries we serve.”
Open source is proven to be the most viable way to deliver complex, sustainable technology innovation and adoption across industry sectors. As outlined in its new white paper, the Eclipse Foundation recognizes the important role open source will play in driving the digital and industrial transformations called for by the European Commission in its recent strategies. Contributions from a broad cross-section of European companies and governmental organizations to open source projects will be key to ensuring that these emerging technologies are fit for Europe, designed with consideration for the privacy and security of individuals and organizations, and have environmental impact in mind.
“The Eclipse Foundation has a long track record of fostering industry collaboration between global organizations and developers who share the goal of creating scalable open source software,” said Juergen Mueller, chief technology officer and member of the Executive Board of SAP SE. “As a founding strategic member of the Eclipse Foundation, SAP actively participates in several Eclipse projects and working groups. With the legal move of the Eclipse Foundation to Brussels, we expect more international collaboration across industries in an open environment. We look forward to collaborating with members from around the world to create and innovate together.”
Supported by over 300 members globally, the Eclipse Foundation has an established international reach and reputation, and a track record of enabling co-innovation earned over more than 15 years. The Foundation’s more than 375 open source projects have resulted in over 240 million lines of code — a more than €13 billion shared investment. The organization’s members include industry leaders who value the Foundation’s open innovation processes and its unique Working Group governance model that makes it possible to share intellectual property without the threat of antitrust and regulatory challenges.
The Eclipse Foundation’s new home will enhance all its global members’ abilities to participate in European projects via open technologies. This will provide new opportunities for all, in a competitive global level playing field, to bring new solutions to the global market.
“The Eclipse Foundation is vital to millions of developers worldwide, as are Eclipse projects to companies in many industries,” said Todd Moore, vice president of Open Technology and Advocacy, IBM. “The Eclipse Foundation is taking steps to expand its global presence and reach. IBM welcomes the initiative and is providing support.”
The establishment of the new legal entity is expected to be finalized by July 2020. More information on the Foundation’s plans and how interested parties can get involved can be found at eclipse.org/europe.
Quotes from Members and Supporters
ADLINK
"ADLINK embraced Eclipse as the open source foundation of choice a few years ago and since then we have worked closely with the community to advance the state of the art in IoT and Edge Native Technologies,” said Jim Liu, CEO, ADLINK. “We applaud the Eclipse Foundation’s decision to become a European organization as this will positively impact the growth in collaboration and sharing of great quality open source software.”
Bosch
“As a Strategic member of the Eclipse Foundation, we’ve seen first-hand this organization’s ability to spur innovation, provide pragmatic governance, and build new open industry ecosystems - particularly relevant for the cross domain Bosch IoT strategy,” said Steffen Evers, Bosch.IO’s director of Open Source and member of the Eclipse Foundation Board of Directors. “This is why we are excited the Eclipse Foundation is making the move to Europe. Adopting the open source model is critical to the long-term competitiveness of European industry on the world stage. We are confident the Eclipse Foundation’s expansion will serve as a catalyst for collaborative innovation and digitalization in multiple industries across the continent.”
DLR
“Open source software is a key enabler for our work in helping to create environmental policy, create safer cities, and drive the adoption of new mobility concepts. For many years, the Eclipse Foundation has been an outstanding partner and community leader supporting our efforts,” said Prof. Dr. Katharina Seifert of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR). “With Eclipse SUMO at its core, the openMobility Working Group is just one example of the Eclipse Foundation bringing together researchers and diverse industry players to collaborate on a common platform in an open, vendor-neutral environment. We are thrilled that they have chosen to establish a new base in Europe and look forward to partnering with the EU team for many years to come to build a global connected and automated mobility ecosystem.”
Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS)
“For the institutes of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, the leading research organization for application-oriented research in Europe, open source plays an important role in many research areas. What counts for us in our research is practical applicability and at the same time scientific excellence. Numerous results of Fraunhofer research are based on the idea of open source software or contribute to it. The establishment of the Eclipse Foundation in Europe will certainly further strengthen its role not only in terms of its international significance, but also particularly for European and German research," says Dr. Tom Ritter, deputy director of the Fraunhofer Institute FOKUS.
Huawei Technologies
“We congratulate the Eclipse Foundation on moving to become European,” said Bryan Che, chief strategy officer, Huawei Technologies. “Through this move, the Eclipse Foundation will provide an ideal platform for Europe to build global open source technologies while supporting digital competitiveness along with increased opportunities for global companies to collaborate in and with Europe. At Huawei, we strongly support open source and open governance to develop innovative technologies for the shared benefit of everyone. And, with our over 13,000 employees across the continent, we look forward to partnering with the Eclipse Foundation to invest in the future of open source in Europe.”
IOTA Foundation
“We are very excited about the move of the Eclipse Foundation to its new base in Brussels,” said Dominik Schiener, co-founder of IOTA Foundation. “Home to some of the leading advocates and policy makers for digital rights, data privacy and open source, the EU is helping to shape the future of the internet and beyond. Being based out of Brussels will help to further strengthen and advance the position of the Eclipse Foundation and will support the entire open source community to gain further adoption and recognition not just within enterprises, but also on a policy level.”
Linux Foundation
“We applaud the global expansion to bring more open source governance options to Europe and look forward to collaborating across foundations in the future,” said Chris Aniszczyk, vice president of Developer Relations at the Linux Foundation and CTO of CNCF.
Obeo
“Open source is at the core of our corporate philosophy,” said Cédric Brun, CEO of Obeo. “As a strategic member of the Eclipse Foundation, we are deeply delighted to see the organization expanding to Europe. Open collaboration with a global ecosystem of innovators will keep Europe’s strategic industries on pace with the very latest developments and trends.“
OpenForum Europe
“OpenForum Europe warmly welcomes the Eclipse Foundation’s move to Europe as it is a major recognition of the large and growing role of open source in Europe’s efforts to digitise industry as well as society at large,” said Sachiko Muto, CEO, OpenForum Europe. “One of our organisation’s primary goals is to encourage increased exchange and understanding of open source technologies between European governments, the EU institutions, and open source stakeholders. We believe that the Eclipse Foundation will be an important source of experience and knowledge in Europe, and in particular Brussels.”
Open Source Initiative
“Open source software is now clearly a global, transformative phenomenon that requires international representation,” said Josh Simmons, president, Open Source Initiative. “I'm thrilled that the Eclipse Foundation has stepped up to fulfill this role for Europe. A well-governed foundation within the European Union further strengthens open source efforts around the world and helps to ensure more choice and diversity in software development.”
Red Hat
“The Eclipse Foundation and its governance have been critical to the success of many of the innovative open source projects in which we participate,” said Chris Wright, Red Hat’s CTO. “As a Strategic Developer member, we are pleased to support their continued expansion. The new European-based organization will serve to strengthen and expand our community partnerships within the foundation’s global ecosystem.”
SprinD
“The open source model, and the collaboration upon which it depends, are the very foundations for innovation and growth across multiple global industries,” said Rafael Laguna de la Vera, director, Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation, SprinD GmbH. “These guiding principles are critical to the task we are undertaking to jumpstart innovation here in Germany and beyond. Partners like the Eclipse Foundation are an incredibly important part of our work, so we are very happy to see them investing in the EU and expanding globally to help us leverage open source technologies to jointly bring the future to life.”
About the Eclipse Foundation
The Eclipse Foundation provides our global community of individuals and organizations with a mature, scalable, and business-friendly environment for open source software collaboration and innovation. The Foundation is home to the Eclipse IDE, Jakarta EE, and over 375 open source projects, including runtimes, tools, and frameworks for cloud and edge applications, IoT, AI, automotive, systems engineering, digital ledger technologies, open processor designs, and many others. The Eclipse Foundation is a not-for-profit organization supported by over 300 members, including industry leaders who value open source as a key enabler for their business strategies. To learn more, follow us on Twitter @EclipseFdn, LinkedIn, or visit eclipse.org.
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