What is a FIWARE iHub?

Here are the details about FIWARE iHubs.

See the FIWARE Guidelines for Applicants where this information was provided.

A FIWARE iHub is the center for the adoption of FIWARE technologies among businesses in a given region. iHubs address the traditional barriers for business expansion of SMEs, mid-caps and large companies, improving accessibility to their target markets. They increase competitiveness through modernization and, at a regional level, facilitate the diversification of the local economy.

A FIWARE iHub offers several services to local companies, including technology and consulting support, training, research and testing, all using FIWARE technology. It brings them support to join the FIWARE Marketplace.

iHub services include market information, certifications, product analysis, search for distributors, local representatives and partners, communication channels, individual coaching of SMEs, site location evaluation, organization of events and fact-finding missions for companies, associations and official delegations.

FIWARE iHubs are classified by the services they provide, by the resources they allocate and by other factors. They have to be operated by organizations which are members of the FIWARE Foundation. There are four categories of FIWARE iHubs, starting with the lowest category, named ‘Basic’, where up to three stars can be gained, as services and resources are growing. Different kinds of FIWARE iHubs can be approved, depending on their characteristics. The FIWARE iHubs Committee, with the support of the FIWARE Foundation, has the responsibility of assessing the performance of existing or new FIWARE iHub candidates with respect to defined FIWARE iHubs levels and facilitating the overall coordination and collaboration of FIWARE iHubs.

Getting started with FIWARE iHubs

Here are details for starting a FIWARE iHub.

See the FIWARE iHubs landing page where this information was provided.

Your FIWARE iHub is devoted to instructing and educating, but also helping and advising local communities, matching the demands of their local market and creating new demands.Applicants must carry out such tasks through a strong multidisciplinary team, with relevant experience in similar activities. Among other criteria, it is necessary that iHub staff demonstrate abilities in technology counseling, using FIWARE technology. iHubs need to demonstrate that they have – or are planning to have – resources to provide such services.

5.2.1 Organization and contact information

Our organization partnership details

You need to provide the information to the people and organization behind the iHub. You need to provide:

1. Organization name
   Red Hat Collaboratory at Boston University
2. Organization description
   Red Hat builds partnerships across public, private, and nonprofit sectors to foster collaboration towards building better open source solutions towards the benefit of all. Through Red Hat Impact, Red Hatters are enabled to contribute their skills to impactful open source community projects. Boston University provides a partnership with Red Hat, advancing research and learning in emerging technologies. The Red Hat Collaboratory connects Boston University faculty and students with industry practitioners working in open-source software communities.
3. Name of the contact person
   Christopher Tate, Christos Cassandras
4. Contact email
   smartvillage-platform@computate.topicbox.com
5. Contact phone number
   To Be Announced

5.2.2 iHub information

Our iHub details

You need to provide information about the iHub, domains of actuations, expected iHub level etc. You need to provide:

1. iHub name
   Smarta Byar Smart Village Community
2. iHub website

   https://research.redhat.com/blog/research_project/creating-a-global-open-research-platform-to-better-understand-social-sustainability-using-data-from-a-real-life-smart-village/

3. iHub domains
   • Smart Cities
4. Region
   North America
5. City
   Boston
6. Street
   Division of Systems Engineering, 15 St Mary's St, Boston University, Brookline
7. Zip Code
   02446
8. Country
   USA
9. Why do you want to be a FIWARE iHub?
   We learned about the FIWARE Marketplace and the strong community of FIWARE Innovation Hubs and partners while attending the FIWARE Summit. Building with the FIWARE context broker means that we can combine our data with the rest of the FIWARE Marketplace applications to discover new ways to visualize our data. FIWARE's Smart Data Models align with our smart solutions as well, and the FIWARE Context Broker supports all of these data models, which is why our project is now powered by a FIWARE Context Broker.
10. Describe briefly your regional connection with public authorities

    We have connections with the Boston Mayor’s Office for New Urban Dynamics. But right now our mission is focused on Veberöd, Sweden, where we obviously have lots of connections through Jan Malmgren and our project partner SmartaByar.

11. Describe briefly how you plan to meet regional needs and demands
    Once our platform is ready for outside users, our plan is to inform our Boston contacts and ask them to test it and provide feedback.
12. Describe your experience with FIWARE
    • We developed the open source Smart Village Operator which runs on Red Hat OpenShift and Kubernetes.It currently implements the TrafficFlowObserved smart data model as a Kubernetes custom resource definition with more to come.It's compatible with any Smart Data Model, and easy to extend with new Smart Data Models we have not implemented yet.It registers the smart data model as a service group on the IOT Agent JSON, and individual devices for each instance of the Smart Data Model custom resource definition you define.
    • We developed the GitOps to deploy the FIWARE IoT Agent JSON to Red Hat OpenShift and Kubernetes.
    • We developed the GitOps to deploy the FIWARE IoT Agent UL to Red Hat OpenShift and Kubernetes.
    • We helped with the development and documentation of the FIWARE Local Marinera development environment on Red Hat OpenShift Local.
    • We developed two reusable FIWARE Hackathons on GitHub for Smart Cities and Smart Environment.
    • We have open sourced the working architecture for deploying FIWARE components to the New England Research Cloud OpenShift environment in production.
    • We have presented several sessions at the FIWARE Summit 2022 in Gran Canaria, Spain.
    • We will be presenting several more sessions at the FIWARE Summit 2023 in Vienna, Austria.
13. Expected level of FIWARE iHub
    Advanced Services

5.2.3 Documents

Required documents for our iHub

There are 6 types of documents:

1. Activities overview
2. Activities evidences
3. Resources overview
4. Resources evidences
5. Pledge letter
6. Action plan

If you are running as an iHub before the application process, you have developed some activities. In that case, you can apply to be an established iHub. According to activities you already performed during the year before the application date, you will obtain a specific level (Basic, Standard/1 star, Advanced/2 stars or Premium/3 stars).

In case you have not started running your activity as an iHub yet, you can apply to be an incubated iHub. You need to provide an Action Plan for the next year. Both cases, you need to provide resource evidence.

Resource	Incubated iHub	Basic, 1,2 or 3 star iHub
Organization and contact information
iHub information
Activities resume
Activities evidence
Resources resume
Resources evidence
Action plan

5.2.3.1 Activities overview

Our iHub activities

You need to put the number of activities that have already performed for each type of activity described in the document. The document will calculate your final mark in each category according to each activity score. At the end, you need to compare the score of each category and total scoring with thresholds defined in Annex I.

5.2.3.2 Activities evidences

Evidence of our iHub activities

In order to provide evidence of each activity included in the activity overview, you need include specific details for each one. The typical information requested is:

• Description: (Required)
• Date (dd/mm/yy): (Required)
• Target Audience:
• Topics and FIWARE Technologies
• Number of participants
• Photo or media
• Additional info

5.2.3.3 Resources overview

Our FIWARE iHub resources

You need to fulfil in green each cell of each resource you already have on the document. You need all resources marked with x in each category to be eligible as that iHub level. You need to reach at least the 85% of all resources required for each iHub level.

5.2.3.4 Resources evidences

Evidence of our FIWARE iHub resources

The aim of the resources evidence file is to provide evidence of resources you have (for example, pictures of physical venue, audio-visual equipment, labs etc.) in the same way that Activities evidence.

• Resource Name
• Description
• Target Audience
• Media resources / Photos
• Additional information

5.2.3.5 Pledge letter

Our FIWARE iHub pledge letter

The document provides the commitment of entity planning enrol to FIWARE iHub program, ensuring the veracity and accuracy of all information provided to justify the activities performed by the organization and resources dedicated. Must be fulfilled and signed by the head of iHub entity or a legal representative.

5.2.3.6 Action plan

Our FIWARE iHub action plan