The concept of smart cities refers to a city model where resources are optimized, improving the citizens life´s quality through technological innovation. In this area, geolocation technologies play an essential role. Is this article we tour the concept of smart city, we explain why the geolocation is so important and applicable technologies and some success stories. Let’s start.
Building smart and sustainable cities of tomorrow is not an easy task, no doubt. However, the rewards are well worth it. Among the most important challenges facing application developers is the choice of suitable environments for the development and implementation online. We tell you why use FIWARE.
For those who do not yet know, FIWARE is constituted as a free alternative, with great advantages over existing platforms for application in smart cities.
This infrastructure facilitates developers, service providers and private or public organizations provide online services thanks to its open source architecture and also a set of open specifications. It is always with the objective of developing innovative products from a collaborative approach.
In other words, it provides a free open source platform from own standards, which would integrate different applications developed by different companies, with the aim of improving the competitiveness of products and in turn, citizens quality´s life.
Besides all that, it has what is known as FIWARE Lab, a virtual test environment designed by technology providers, developers and their sponsors could build solutions and experiment with them from open data. This is always a great advantage to test if the product really works.
However, the advantages of using FIWARE, if you are going to develop an oriented application to a smart city, go far beyond.
In practise, using FIWARE provides significant advantages at the time to develop and implement Internet services that take the form of apps linked to smart cities:
1. Easy to implement
It allows easy development and deployment of advanced applications on the network, covering the most different areas, which will be useful for creating and delivering services that enrich people’s live in the smart city.
2. Ensure interoperability
Being an open platform that provides tools and forms an innovation ecosystem that ensures interoperability and the establishment of standard data models is ideal to create applications and services within the concept of smart city.
3. Easily scalable
In addition to having components of open software, in effect, we create an ecosystem around that continues to enrich them and, in time, enhance the results. Therefore, a developer that uses components based on FIWARE could easily move their developments to any other application designed under the same standard.
4. Open API standards
It provides cloud computing enhanced capabilities hosting with OpenStack and an extensive library of components with value-added features and services that include a set of tools and libraries called “Generic Enablers” (GE), which provide open standards API.
These GE, whose specifications and interfaces are public and without rights, allow open standards API have also become public and were based on the development of an open source reference.
In fact, one of the main reasons why FIWARE is a key to the infrastructure of smart cities is, precisely, that the different GE conform an architecture that solves most of its needs.
5. It allows the development of powerful Apps and data fed in real-time
The organization of GE in different technology chapters (Internet of things or IoT, apps, etc.) provides a variety of capabilities that enable create powerful apps, such as technologies to connect sensors or, in the chapter on applications, to develop interfaces or business intelligence.
These standards and open APIs are those that facilitate connect to IoT devices, data processing and real-time media on a large scale, and incorporate advanced interactive functions.
6. Faster and more efficient launch
Since, as we have noted, in FIWARE, API specifications are public and free, they are exempt from royalties and they are supported by an open source reference implementations, vendors can go to market faster.
Another of its strengths is related to reduce creating apps, associated with the fact that the platform offers a set of a free use APIs.
The rapid construction of functional web interfaces to exploit information, on the other hand, it will be easier by integrating heterogeneous data through tools available in its catalog, with which to define behaviours in the context of the events generated.
7. Easily replicable
Against proprietary solutions or specific vertical solutions for various services, FIWARE is easily replicable and facilitates the creation of enabling global ecosystems to develop applications that could be implemented in different cities.
8. It provides context information massively.
This is because in the FIWARE platform, the management is an essential element. Represented by values associated attributes, thanks to GE Context Broker, we generate, collect, analyze in real-time and publish information such as open data, and use it by any application.
9. It helps project financing
This is one more reason to use FIWARE. This is part of the public-private Partnership for the Internet of the future of the EU.
It is a public-private project, emerged by the commitment of the EU to help the ICT sector to flourish in the European region through the Startup Europe initiative, given the importance it has for the European economy and in the design of smart cities.
For promotion, the EU invests million of Euros in companies and cyber entrepreneurs using FIWARE technologies, as well as accelerators of different types, cofinance within FIWARE Accelerator program.
Its mission is to encourage start-ups, whose projects consider with more potential, providing resources of various kinds, including finance, contacts with investors, accessing to more customers and gaining visibility. Again, another set of key advantages for the success of projects related to smart cities.
Considering these points, it is easy to understand why FIWARE is the European standard for the development of smart cities and therefore, why you should consider for your next project. We are from Geographica and we believe in its potential and we have bet by this technology in many of our projects.
Its common context allows us to respond to local needs without sacrificing global innovations, while improving competitiveness, helping its commercial expansion and facilitating the exchange of best practices.
We return next week.
