Linux Foundation starts AgStack, an open-source agtech initiative
Something like this is so sorely needed.I've been doing some work in ag-tech for the past few years (having previously worked in ISP/telco, general SME web/mobile development, then consumer travel tech).The tools available to farmers/growers for what should be quite basic things - i.e., web-connected weather stations and monitoring systems for soil moisture, frost alarms and irrigation control are terrible.The industry is full of small players who take a look and think "I know how to build stuff with [Arduino/Raspberry Pi/Zigbee etc], I can build an ag-tech monitoring/control product easily".So everyone builds a hardware product from scratch, then as a quick afterthought, a web app with an SQL database and Highcharts to show data graphs. You have an MVP within a few months, then a few paying customers in your local community, then suddenly your customers start asking for features you'd never thought of, like sensor inputs you didn't know existed, or combined displays of different kinds of data you'd never considered anyone would want, or needing it to be faster (SQL turns out to be really slow for this kind of data) or more reliable (bugfixing is hard when your devices are hundreds of miles away and connected via weak 3G/4G data links), and you realise your hardware and software architecture doesn't support any of this, and you'd have to completely start over to actually deliver something that customers really need, but you're out of money and energy.The result is a lot of farmers/growers dissatisfied/frustrated at never being able to get the monitoring systems they need (some of them having tried 3+ different vendors), and a lot of new companies trying to build new solutions and going bust.I've been thinking there needs to be some widely accepted open standards in the industry for hardware and software platforms, so solutions providers can avoid trying to re-invent everything and instead focus on integration of tried-and-true building blocks.If this initiative brings that about, it would be a big win for everyone in the industry.