Open Source Drives Digital Twin Adoption
been raised in several works 41 42 43 . In this context , driving Digital Twin development with the converged Open Source and open standard approach brings significant benefits , including :
• higher co-innovation and interoperability due to better collaboration between organizations , vendors , end-users and communities ,
• faster validation of the specifications due to agile development of open standards by providing production-ready code ,
• faster adoption of the technology due to the establishment of de facto standards ,
• scalability of reference implementations into interoperable products for Digital Twins , and
• better cost-effectiveness and faster responsiveness to market demands and changes .
More than ever , the convergence of open standards and Open Source is crucial to enable interoperable Digital Twins since this convergence provides an open platform capable of dealing with technological complexity and market dynamics . Following the approach shown in Figure 1 , early versions of the specifications , standards , and code of reference implementations are available to the Open Source community . Based on the feedback gained during the agile development , specifications , standards , and code of reference , implementations can achieve their necessary maturity level faster . As a result , the development cycles necessary to develop open standards become shorter . These open standards and specifications can be potentially submitted to ISO , IEC , DIN , or other SDOs . It is expected that the processes within these SDOs are also accelerated .
However , one must acknowledge the challenges that arises when multiple organizations provide different open standards and Open Source implementations for Digital Twins . Whether in an open collaborative model with the community or not , several organizations are developing specifications for Digital Twins and the information they provide is shaping their foundations .
These different organizations seem overlapping and competing at a first glance , and it may become a challenge for them to position themselves with each other and provide clear direction to their stakeholders . Therefore , the setup of collaborations and liaisons to align and complement activities between these different organizations are highly desirable for the good of the general community . Otherwise , there is the risk that the goal of faster implementation of
41 https :// iot . eclipse . org / community / resources / whitepapers / pdf / Eclipse % 20IoT % 20White % 20Paper % 20- % 20Open % 20Source % 20Software % 20for % 20Industry % 204.0 . pdf
42 https :// plc4x . apache . org / users / industry40 . html
43 https :// openforumeurope . org / publications / standards-and-open-source-bringing-them-together /
- 32 - March 2021