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Italian Court OKs Preference for Open Source
,----[ Quote ]
| Here's a big win for open source: the
| Italian Constitutional Court has approved a
| law in Piedmont giving preference to open
| source, ruling that it is not anti-
| competitive:
|
| Just over a year ago, the Piedmont
| Regional Council passed a law which
| states: "... the Region, in the process
| of choosing computer programs to
| acquire, prefers free software and
| programs whose source code can be
| inspected by the licensee" (Article 6,
| paragraph 2).
|
| This choice was welcomed with
| enthusiasm by Free Software supporters
| and civil society, while the Presidency
| of the Italian Council of Minister
| contested this law, by referring to the
| Constitutional Court in order to
| declare it unlawful.
|
| On March the 23rd, 2010, the Court
| ruled that the preference for Free
| Software is legitimate and complies
| with the principle of freedom of
| competition.
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2010/03/italian-court-oks-preference-for-open.html
ESRI to government: arenât you being a little hasty in making this OS data free?
,----[ Quote ]
| ESRI has sent an open letter to government
| â with a number of co-signatories who are
| in effect competitors â fretting about the
| proposal (commitment really) to make a
| number of OS datasets free.
|
| Below is the letter, which Iâve blockquoted
| to make it clear whatâs the letter and
| whatâs not. Iâve inserted some comments,
| based on my personal knowledge; and of
| course some of this is coloured by my
| advocacy of the Free Our Data campaign.
`----
http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/2010/03/esri-to-government-arent-you-being-a-little-hasty-in-making-this-os-data-free/
Right to reply: Brownâs digital future needs to be open source
,----[ Quote ]
| Last weekâs speech by Gordon Brown outlined
| Labourâs vision for building Britainâs
| digital future. In this Right to Reply
| article, Steve Shine, executive vice
| president of worldwide operations, Ingres,
| the open source database provider, looks at
| why any future strategy needs to be based
| on open source technology, rather than tied
| to specific vendors.
`----
http://www.netimperative.com/news/2010/march/right-to-reply-brown2019s-digital-future-needs-to/view
Kundra Outlines Open Government Progress
,----[ Quote ]
| While the idea of open government is still
| an abstract one to many, the Obama
| administration is already seeing real
| results from its efforts to be more
| transparent in its activities, Obama's
| chief information officer said this week.
|
| In testimony Tuesday before the U.S.
| subcommittee on federal financial
| management, government information, federal
| services, and international security,
| federal CIO Vivek Kundra attempted to shed
| light on how the administration's Open
| Government Initiative is already fostering
| innovation and improving the performance of
| the U.S. government.
`----
http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/leadership/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224200264
Korea Struggles in Developing Open Software
,----[ Quote ]
| Korea's lackluster performance in open-
| source software continues to hit the
| country both at home and abroad.
|
| The state-run National IT Industry
| Promotion Agency (NIPA) disclosed Thursday
| the results of research regarding the
| international open-source software
| industry. Korea chalked up rather
| disappointing results.
|
| Out of the four categories assessed, Korea
| ranked fourth when it came to national
| policies for open-source software, sixth in
| overall environment and seventh for usage
| of the programs.
`----
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2010/03/123_63038.html
Better Portland government through open source apps?
,----[ Quote ]
| Civic problem got you frustrated? Mayor Sam
| Adams hopes you'll build an app for that.
|
| Adams announced the launch of CivicApps, an
| open source design contest to "showcase
| regional open data and promote
| collaboration between citizens and
| government to create applications ... that
| address civic issues" to benefit the
| community at large.
`----
http://www.kgw.com/news/local/CivicApps-contest-tailored-to-Portland-tech-savvy-88419547.html
Berners-Lee says rate countries by data sharing
,----[ Quote ]
| Berners-Lee promotes data.gov.uk, the UK's
| government data portal which launched in
| January. It aims to get developers
| interested in creating applications to make
| better use of the information collected by
| the government.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/18/open_gov_boost/
Pirate Party UK launches manifesto
,----[ Quote ]
| That shouldn't affect too many people,
| though, if there are any photographers
| still left with a business. The Party
| believes that "in this fast moving world
| [sic] 10 years of copyright protection is
| long enough". The creator would need to re-
| apply after five years, however, or the
| work would fall into the public domain.
|
| "An exception will be made for software,
| where a 5 year term will apply to closed
| source software, and a 10 year term to open
| source, in recognition of the extra rights
| given to the public by open source
| licences."
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/22/pirate_party_uk_manifesto/
Gordon Brown: superfast broadband vital to prevent 'digital divide'
,----[ Quote ]
| The speech is a clear sign of the parties'
| maneouvring ahead of the election, expected
| to be called on 6 April to be held on 6
| May. In the past month the Tories and
| Labour have been jockeying for position
| over their commitment to creating more
| accessible online government services,
| broadband and also public access to non-
| personal government data, with the Tories
| saying they would introduce a "right to
| public data" bill to let people request and
| receive public datasets, publishing details
| of government contracts worth more than
| Â25,000 online, encouraging use of free
| open-source software in government
| development, and encouraging telecoms
| companies to offer superfast broadband.
`----
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/mar/22/gordon-brown-superfast-broadband
What Was Gordon Brown Thinking this Morning?
,----[ Quote ]
| Not only do we have the key words âopenâ
| and âopen sourceâ in there, but the UK
| government is talking about âthe will and
| willingness of the centre to give up
| controlâ (and if you believe that last
| part, then I have a bridge I'd like to sell
| you.) And yet there is something deeply
| disturbing about this speech that makes me
| wonder what on earth Gordon Brown was
| thinking when he uttered it.
`----
http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=2865&blogid=14
Gordon Brown proposes personalised MyGov web services
,----[ Quote ]
| Instead of civil servants or politicians
| being the sole authors of government
| information, he claimed that open source
| information will allow citizens to shape
| information for their own needs.
`----
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/mar/22/mygov-personalised-government-web-services
Gordon Brown slammed for supporting Oracle, Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| Open source technology was cited as the
| ethos on which Digital Britain will be
| built. The PM used the shared services
| centre in the Department for Work and
| Pensions (the Dole), which already supports
| 140,000 staff in three departments and
| plans to take on four more in the next
| year, as an example of what he wanted.
|
| Needless to say the Open Source companies
| are thrilled. Steve Shine, executive vice
| president of worldwide operations, Ingres,
| the worldâs largest open source database
| provider released a statement saying that
| this was just the beginning.
`----
http://www.techeye.net/software/gordon-brown-slammed-for-supporting-oracle-microsoft
Tech Companies Play the Franco-Israeli Nexus
,----[ Quote ]
| Until now, businesses and government
| agencies in Israel have been heavy users of
| Microsoft software, but the open source
| movement is gaining traction thanks in part
| to the help and encouragement of the French
| tech community, says Stolar. "We hope
| HaCantina will create the necessary ground
| for collaboration and development and new
| innovation," he says. HaCantina doesn't yet
| have a physical home, but Kesos and Stolar
| hope to find a location soon.
`----
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/blog/europeinsight/archives/2010/03/tech_companies.html
Watering down European standards
,----[ Quote ]
| The concept of open IT standards, which is
| central to the European Interoperability
| Framework (EIF), is to be watered down to
| such a degree that it will fade into
| insignificance. At least that's the
| impression given by a current EIF 2 release
| leaked to the Free Software Foundation
| Europe.
|
| The internationally recognised European
| Interoperability Framework (EIF) for using
| open standards is to lose further weight
| and definition during the version 2
| revision process. After a first draft
| became public in November 2009, a new EIF 2
| "Release Candidate" leaked in March has
| added further fuel to the earlier
| criticism.
`----
http://www.h-online.com/open/features/Watering-down-European-standards-966955.html
EIFv2 ad nauseam
,----[ Quote ]
| What do you get out of this? The whole EIF2
| was a document to be ready and delivered in
| 2007 latest. We are in 2010 now. It is just
| a small paper to be attached to a
| communication.
`----
http://arebentisch.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/eifv2/
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