OASIS Open Establishes European Foundation to Advance Open Collaboration Opportunities

International Consortium Bolsters European Focus on Open Source and Open Standards Development

Utrecht, The Netherlands; 20 January 2021 – OASIS Open, the international open source and open standards consortium, is pleased to announce the launch of the OASIS Open Europe Foundation (https://www.oasis-open.eu). The foundation provides a strong and dedicated European focus in setting standards for open collaboration, and allows OASIS to provide long-term sustainability for European Union research projects.

“The OASIS Open Europe Foundation gives us a unique opportunity to work with the European Union and EU Member States to advance open source and standards projects,” said Dr. Martin Chapman of Oracle, who chairs the OASIS Open Europe Foundation. “We will leverage the global experience of OASIS Open to provide a regional focus for the OASIS community and engage in European-specific activities that promote the use of open technologies.”

“We are particularly excited by the diverse group of experts who will be providing leadership on the foundation’s Board of Directors,” said Dr. Carol Cosgrove-Sacks, Senior Advisor, International Standards Policy at OASIS. “They represent a remarkable range of talent from industry and academia with strong expertise in ICT standards, open source projects, innovation, research, and development, along with perspectives in new areas for open technologies such as AI and data.”

The OASIS Open Europe Foundation’s Board of Directors will include:

• Laetitia Cailleteau of Accenture (France)
• Martin Chapman of Oracle (Ireland)
• Eva Coscia of R2M Solution (Italy)
• Gershon Janssen, Independent Consultant (Netherlands)
• Janna Lingenfelder of IBM (Germany)
• Guy Martin of OASIS Open (United States)
• Andriana Prentza of the University of Piraeus (Greece)

Building on OASIS Open’s European Presence

OASIS Open has a long history of advancing open source and open standards in Europe. OASIS standards and specifications have been used in very large, highly visible initiatives, including Europe’s most widely used standard for electronic invoices, and serve as the basis of the European Commission’s eDelivery building block that is used in some of the world’s largest international data exchanges.

OASIS has a well-established place on the EU’s high-level advisory committee, the Multi-Stakeholder Platform for EU ICT Standardisation (MSP). OASIS standards feature in the Rolling Plan for ICT standardisation and are routinely used in both the private and public sector throughout Europe.

Open source has become increasingly important as a complement or alternative to traditional standardisation. The Open Document Format for Office Applications was originally developed in Europe as a file format of open source office software and subsequently standardized at OASIS Open and in ISO. Today, OASIS Open is hosting open source work in areas like cybersecurity and blockchain. The OASIS Open Europe Foundation aims to support open source initiatives that prefer to operate in Europe with European stakeholders under EU law.

Open data is an emerging area of interest in the OASIS Open community, especially in Europe, due to Europe’s lead in areas such as data protection and its legislation. Like open standards, open data is a key contributor to the Digital Single Market that will benefit from new products and services based on data. Data is also a critical asset for future development of AI. The OASIS Open Europe Foundation will support the OASIS Open community as a global player in the international data space area, leveraging its reputation in areas of security and privacy.

About OASIS Open

One of the most respected, member-driven standards bodies in the world, OASIS offers projects—including open source projects—a path to standardisation and de jure approval for reference in international policy and procurement. OASIS members include major multinational companies, SMEs, government agencies, universities, research institutions, consulting groups, and individuals.

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