News Releases

Toshiba Corporation
Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation

Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502, Toshiba) and Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation (TDSL) today announced ifLink Open Community, dedicated to promoting and advancing the co-creation of innovative, user-first services built on a shared, simple to use IoT platform. ifLink Open Community will establish its organization in fiscal year 2019 and start promotion activities in fiscal year 2020. 

ifLink Open Community, with Toshiba and TDSL as core members, aims to bring together innovators from academia and industry, from different disciplines and businesses, in an open community dedicated to realizing the vision of a world “where users can create value for themselves by freely combining modules” and “where participants enjoy broader business opportunities.”

While the new community is yet to launch, nine companies, all leaders in their field, have already expressed their support for the community’s guiding concepts: Alps Alpine Co., Ltd., Cresco Ltd., Denso Corporation, Global Mobility Service Inc., KDDI Corporation, Kyocera Corporation, SoftBank Corp., Soracom, Inc. and Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. 

Developed by TDSL as a platform that allows product developers to bring the capabilities of the IoT to a wider range of user-first applications, ifLink allows users to operate apps and functions by defining a condition and a result—if and then. It is simple to use, requiring no expertise in IT or programming on the part of the user, and is expected to bring new business opportunities to companies in a wide range of businesses. 

Once up and running, ifLink Open Community will operate two distinct communities that support realization of its vision.
The Co-creation Community will provide a forum where users and consortium members can discuss application of ifLink and promote exchanges of ideas from the user perspective. 
ifLink Development Community will allow the innovators and manufacturers in the consortium’s membership to work together to link different IoT devices, web services and applications, to expand the number of modules that can be connected to ifLink, and to quickly develop product prototypes. This community will aim to create IoT services that embody user ideas and needs and to realize swift commercialization through a demonstration test environment and member network.

Working with the supporting members, Toshiba and TDSL will assiduously promote and expand the ifLink Open Community as core members. 

*For more information, please see the following website (available only in Japanese):
About ifLink Open Community
https://www.toshiba-sol.co.jp/pro/iflink_consortium/

About ifLink
https://www.toshiba-sol.co.jp/pro/iflink/index_j.htm