European Commission guide to better practices in public procurement of ICT technologies

The week before last the EuropeanCommission issued a Communication “Against lock-in: building open ICT systems by making better use of standards in public procurement”. (COM(2013) 455 - together with SWD(2013) 224). This results from Digital Agenda Action Item 23. The objective is to provide guidance on ICT procurement for better procurement by putting more stress on standards and achieving more openness with open ICT infrastructures in public administrations. And this Communication complements a number of other Commission initiatives and guides, above all the European Interoperability Framework. But it also refers to how the new EU Regulation on Standardisation (1025/2012) can help to make use of best-of-breed global ICT standards.

I could be very brief by saying the guide is extremely good. Please read it – it's available on the Commission web site. And public authorities: please make use of it. The open way which is standards based is the better way for increasing choice, flexibility and allowing the uptake of innovative new technologies.

The Communication was presented alongwith the statement that the use of “Open standards would save public sector €1 billion a year”. Personally, I am always cautious with such savings statements. But for sure: Open Standards are a way to achieve cost effectiveness, reduce exit costs for technologies and stifle competition and enable greater choice.

The key aspect, to avoid lock-in, is in the focus of the documents:

“Using ICT systems based on standards instead of proprietary technology will help to open up restrictive public procurement practices, because standards make essential knowledge about a system available to anyone, implying that other potential suppliers could maintain or evolve the system under more competitive terms and conditions.” (Communication, p. 4)

The Guide, published as a Staff Working Document (SWD), is composed to give practical advice on how to proceed for analysis in decision making when taking procurement decisions around ICT. It is clearly structured – and I would add worth reading and inspiring also for non-procurers. It covers the different steps from strategy building to long term budgetary planning. All in all a comprehensive approach with high practical relevance.

The benefits of standards is a key aspect addressed. Or better: procurers are guided towards putting a strong focus on standards, building expertise around standards and standardisation and how to assess what is required to meet their needs. And the Guide is not shy in clearly stating that “FRAND licenses create barriers for Open Source projects to implement the technical specification” (Guide, p. 12), which needs to be considered in the context of software interoperability standards.

All in all two very good and useful documents from the Commission. Some people in their reactions over the last two weeks criticised that the Commission is not going far enough. E.g. that practical interoperability is hampered because the Commission does not act accordingly, e.g. when it comes to document formats. While this may be correct, it is more an issue of the implementation of the Guide than of the Guide as such. And this is also my wish: that the Guide may be promoted and find many followers in public procurement. Following the Guide will promote interoperability and will push the implementation of open ICT ecosystems – with all benefits regarding freedom of choice, encouraging competition and innovation, and driving the uptake of new ICT technologies in the European public sector.

G8 oder G9 - quo vadis Baden-Württemberg?

Vor ein paar Wochen gab es schon mal Zwist in der Grün-Roten Koalition in Baden-Württemberg wegen G9, d.h. insbesondere zofften sich wohl die beiden Franktionsvorsitzenden/innen darüber. Klarer Standpunkt des SPD Franktionsvorsitzenden Schmiedel: Die SPD will mehr Schulen ermöglichen, zu G9 zurück zu kehren, als es im Koalitionsvertrag vor einigen Jahren festgeschrieben wurde. Und die SPD ist auch willens, dies zum Wahlkampfthema zu machen. Zu meiner Überraschung die Position der Grünen, z.B. vertreten von der Fraktionsvorsitzenden Sitzmann: keine Erhöhung der Zahl der Schulen, die G9 wieder einführen dürfen; statt dessen Förderung von Gemeinschaftsschulen und Verbesserungen an G8. In den vergangenen Wochen wurde diese Position seitens der baden-württembergischen Grünen immer wieder bestätigt.

Nun, ich bin ein bekennender Anhänger von G9 - 13 Jahre bis zum Abitur. In einer Welt, in der Bildung und Wissen unser größtes Kapital ist, können wir die 13 Jahre, können wir G9 gut gebrauchen. In G8 wurde schulisches Lernen auf Wissensvermittlung reduziert. Es bleibt einfach kein Platz für echte Bildung, für die Ausgestaltung einer Schule als Mikrokosmos, als Polis, in der nicht nur Wissensblock and Wissensblock gehängt, sondern in der verantwortungsvolle, junge Menschen auf das Leben vorbereitet werden.

Die Grünen wollen offenbar all jene, die nicht gleich auf's G8 gehen oder die sich mit G8 nicht wohlfühlen, in die beruflichen Gymnasien oder in die Gemeinschaftsschule drängen. Das ist Separatismus und konterkariert Durchlässigkeit und Chancengleichheit. Netto heißt das zum Beispiel: Wer heute als Kind nach Klasse 4 nicht gleich ein G8 Gymnasium besucht, kann es nur mit der Überwindung von Hürden zur allgemeinen Hochschulreife bringen. Spätentwickler, Kinder aus bildungsfernen Schichten, deren Eltern sich nicht trauen, ihre Kleinen gleich aufs Gymnasium zu schikcne, sind hier am Ende die Verlierer.

Mir ist die Haltung der Grünen hier nicht klar. Erstaunlich bis Enttäuschend. Ich hätte von der Grün-Roten Landesregierung gerade in der Schul- und Bildungspolitik ein paar Impulse erwartet - Baden-Württemberg bietet ein solides Fundament, auf dem eine innovative Schul- und Bildungspolitik aufbauen könnte. Das bremsen die Grünen aus mir nicht nachvollziehbaren Gründen gerade aus. Schade eigentlich ....

EuroCloud Germany – Conference 2013

There is probably no more agile and informative promoter of using and profiting from Cloud technologies in Europe than EuroCloud. EuroCloud cover the full spectrum from creating awareness on the benefits of Cloud technologies to actual requirements gathering for future innovation around the Cloud. In this context, EuroCloud also actively contribute to the work done at ETSI's for defining a Cloud standards map for Europe.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of being invited at the EuroCloud Germany annual conference 2013. In my role as co-facilitator of the ETSI standards mapping activity I was invited to speak about Cloud standardisation and the Cloud Standards Coordination. I tried to paint a picture of the Cloud standardisation landscape with some special focus on the fact that a large number of Cloud standards are already available and the actual task is to identify them and prepare for combining them into Cloud solutions. I stressed that standardisation Is going new ways in Cloud with partnering and collaborating closely with customers, e.g. in the Cloud Standards Customer Council, and in taking a community approach for an open Cloud platform as done in the OpenStack Foundation. My slides are available on silde share: 

1305 eurocloud jfriedrich from Jochen Friedrich

The programme of the conference was extremely good with a number of high level speakers and excellent presentations. Some of my take-aways are:

• Cloud technologies are not just a business for CTOs or CIOs in companies, they need to be addressed at the CEO and COO level.
• It is important to demonstrate to potential Cloud users the actual applications and solutions they can achieve by using the Cloud.
• Let's not talk Cloud technology more complex than it is – otherwise users will be frightened off.
• Trust and security are key aspects for Cloud users.
• Vendor lock-in will not help in achieving a broad uptake of Cloud technologies.

All in all really a great and informative conference. Congratulations to the organisers.

Great new OpenForum Academy publicatoin available

For all who are interested in openness, innovation and standardisation, there is a new collection of papers and essays available from OpenForum Academy titled "Thoughts on Open Innovation". The book, which was edited by Shane Coughlan, has just been published online on the OpenForum Academy website.

The different essays address a large number of what is currently hot in the public discourse - including open data, questions around IPRs, Open Source, etc. There is an excellent introductory section written by Karel de Vriendt. I also contributed a chapter focussing on different IPR regimes in standardisation and their relation to innovation - it's titled "Getting Requirements Right: Towards a Nuanced Approach on Standardisation and IPRs".

Take a look at the book. You can easily download it - or order a printed copy if you prefer. Definitely worth reading.

Industry 4.0 – ready for new wave of innovation

Public discourse about Industry 4.0, the fourth stage of the industrial revolution, is growing vast and rapidly. Almost no day for the last three weeks that the topic was not mentioned in the news in Germany. Working groups are set-up, analyses are being made, strategies are defined.

For those of you who haven't come across the term yet: Industry 4.0 means the ubiquitous support of all industrial process and all machinery by IT technology. What has long been discussed under headings like convergence, smart factory, Internet of Things, process innovation etc. is now subsumed in the catchy concept of Industry 4.0.

Germany is on the forefront of strategy-building regarding Industry 4.0. This may seem only logical given the fact that Germany is a key global producer and exporter of best-of-class machinery of all kinds. Staying on top of technological progress and driving the new wave of innovation that comes with Industry 4.0 is almost a must for an industrial player of the kind of Germany.

The German government had taken leadership more than a year go putting in place an expert group to develop a strategy with recommendations for actions on Industry 4.0. The group's report was published last autumn and is available in German on the website of the German ministry for Education and Research. Henning Kagermann, former CEO of SAP, played a leading role in the expert group and is a major thinker and strategist dealing with the topic area.

Academia and Industry in Germany have also taken up the catch phrase. The German industry association BITKOM has made Industry 4.0 the key topic for the trade showHannover Messe taking place this week. The engineering associations VDE and VDI dedicate special working groups to the topic preparing the grounds for German industry to be a global leader on Industry 4.0. And for academia the highly renown Professor Wahlster, guru onartificial intelligence at the University of Saarland, has developed in the key spokesman and thinker on the topic.

I am sure that Industry 4.0 will shape the next decade. It is not just a sexy catch word that will soon disappear. Far from that. It is the concept level where many things ongoing today come together. It covers the full spectrum of our economy – from Human Resources to Automation. It is where technologies meet, get integrated, be it into huge machinery or smallest devices. It's IT being embedded everywhere. So it goes deep... And it has the potential for boosting innovation.

Industry 4.0 is, for sure, also a key topic for standardisation. To a large extend it is all about standards. Total automation requires standards and interoperability. Things need to work together. Many standards for Industry 4.0 are already available. In order to be able to close gaps first, standards bodies also get ready to address the topic in an effective and efficient way.

What I see is that more systems standardisation work will be done – In order to provide sample infrastructures and identify gaps. Smart Grid, eMobility – all of this goes into this direction. And end-to-end scenarios and use cases are required. Standards bodies will want to promote the uptake of new technologies and standards and will, therefore, address the topic in such a way so that end-to-end scenarios are available.

And standards bodies will have to collaborate even more because standards from different technology areas need to come together. I see in particular IEC and CENELEC in Europe which need to collaborate closely with the leading global ICT standards bodies. This requires a new, integrative approach. New trust and relationship building. And new processes for collaboration across boundaries.

In my opinion Industry 4.0 has a huge potential regarding innovation. It will have major impact on standardisation, on how standardisation is done – and in which bodies. It will provide the grounds for the success path for embedded technologies. Everybody working in standardisation can be looking forward with excitement of Industry 4.0 to evolve further.

Very sad news: Stephane Hessel died aged 95

This is very sad news today. Stéphane Hessel died aged 95. I have full respect for his life-time work on human rights and a more humane society. I read almost all his pamphletes and books written in the last couple of years which have been so influential in Europe and perhaps even more in Northern Africa. A great loss for Europe, a great European - but I am sure that his testimony will live on.

See for instance the commemoration on Le Monde.

Open Standards and Open Source driving Open Innovation

This morning I had the great pleasure to speak about Open Standards and Open Source as sample cases and as drivers for Open Innovation. I was invited as a speaker by the local industry group IT Forum Rhein-Neckar with whom I have been collaborating for many years. The IT Forum regularly holds business breakfast briefings on hot, trendy and interesting topics.There is always a good audience - many people C-level leaders from local entreprises. My co-speaker was Prof. Koelmel from the University of Pforzheim/Germany who gave a very interesting overview on innovation management and open innovation strategies.

It was astonishing to get the feedback how positively IBM is perceived as far as openness and open innovation are concerned. Several people called IBM a role model on open innovation and on constantly transforming itself and adapting to the market place - including the use of open innovation for pertaining global leadership. 

I uploaded my slide deck on slide share for those who like to browse through: