A friend has told me that the Dutch government has issued a tender that
blatantly violateds the government's own open standards statements or
policies. It's a tender from about 7 ministries for 22,000 desktop
computers with specific references to MS technologies such as Active
Directory when LDAP would suffice.
The tender's called "GOUD" and the choice of technologies is expected to be
used by the government for the next 5-10 years.
This could be stopped either by writing to the Dutch government or to the
European Commission, but writing such a letter takes work to find the
relevent Dutch government policies or European laws, who to send it to etc.
If we want a government to take a stand against rigged tenders, the Dutch
government seems a good candidate due to it's outspoken support of open
standards.
Is anyone interested in working on this?
(or does anyone know of free software supporters already working on it?)
--
Ciarán O'Riordan, +32 477 36 44 19, http://ciaran.compsoc.com/
Support free software, join FSFE's Fellowship: http://fsfe.org
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Hello,
I have found IDABC being a good source for news about EC and open
source, but a search on teh list didn't give me this link, so I make a
pub here:
"The Open Source Observatory (OSO) is dedicated to Free/Libre/Open
Source Software and is intended to encourage the spread and use of best
practices in Europe's public sector.
This section of the IDABC website provides news about the latest
FLOSS-related developments and events in the public sector. Monthly case
studies examine in-depth how administrations use FLOSS to their
advantage. This site is also the home of the European Union Public
License, offering documentation and answering frequent questions. Expert
studies on various aspects of FLOSS are offered for download."
http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/chapter/452
Marc
--
--
Shortwave transmissions in English, Francais, Nederlands, Deutsch, Suid-Afrikaans, Chinese, Dansk, Urdu, Cantonese, Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, ...
http://users.fulladsl.be/spb13810/swlist/ Updated every month or so ....
I saw this on the bxl-lug list.
It's an unpaid position, but they have resources to cover some travel
expenses, and the email mentions that candidates might be able to find
external funding.
The mail also mentions that they will be organising a meeting of CC-Europe
on the 29th of June in Belgium. No further details.
http://creativecommons.be/
--------------------------------------------------
Creative Commons Belgium public lead: we recruit
--------------------------------------------------
Belgium was amongst the first countries having adapted the Creative
Commons licenses into Belgium law. The Belgian CC Licenses were
indeed launched in 2004. Many people in Belgium use Creative Commons
Licenses to disseminate their creative works to the public.
From the beginning, the Belgium public lead for the creative commons
project is Séverine Dusollier, Professor at the University of Namur and,
more exactly a team of researchers of the CRID (Centre de Recherche
Informatique et Droit, University of Namur). Other persons have been
active in the launch of the licenses (Constant asbl, Digitaal Platform
van de steunpunten IAK en IBK) and in the Dutch translation (CIR,
University of Leuven).
In the last years, the Belgium chapter of Creative Commons has not
been inactive, as we are currently working on the version 3 of the
licenses, but has not done much on the promotion of licenses and
other activities related to the use of Creative Commons licenses in
Belgium. Creative Commons Belgium deserves better : the lead of the
project should be restructured and entrusted with new people. The
CRID would continue however to ensure the legal tasks of porting the
licenses.
The main tasks of the Public Lead would be:
- set up a new website for Creative Commons Belgium
- monitor the creative commons Belgium mailing list
- answer to the demands of information or assistance regarding the use
of the licenses
- be involved in iCommons and CC-Europe mailing lists
- be the middle-wo-man between Belgian users of the license, CC Belgium
and Creative Commons international
Other tasks can be imagined (organise public events around the
licenses, ...) but are not mandatory. Being a Creative Commons Public
Lead also means to belong to an international network and to the
overall Creative Commons initiative. Each year, this network gathers
to discuss the licenses (this year, in Japan, see
http://icommonssummit.org/). Every three months, the European Public
Leads also meet to discuss issues around the licences. Financial
resources can be provided to enable travels to such events. Leading a
national chapter of Creative Commons is not paid and is a completely
voluntary job, except if you can find funding on your own.
If you feel interested in jumping in this amazing project or know
someone who would be, send an email to
severine.dusollier(a)fundp.ac.be, explaining your motivation and your
experience with Creative Commons licenses or more generally with open
access... Being a legal association would help, namely to be able to
ask for funding. If you feel like taking the responsibility of some
limited tasks, such as the website, it is also possible
We are organising a meeting of CC-Europe on the 29th of June in
Belgium. If you are interested in the CC Belgium Lead, that might be
a good opportunity to see how it works. Contact me rapidly then.
Our idea is to announce the new public lead in Fall and to release
simultaneously the version 3 of the licenses for Belgium.
I am staying at your disposal if you have further questions.
Séverine Dusollier Creative Commons Public Lead on behalf of the CC
Belgium team
--
Severine Dusollier Professor at the University of Namur Director of
research at the Research Center in IT and Law (CRID)
Rempart de la Vierge 5 5000 NAMUR BELGIUM
Tél: +32 81 72 47 60 Fax: +32 81 72 52 02
severine.dusollier(a)fundp.ac.be
http://www.crid.be
--
Ciarán O'Riordan (+32 477 36 44 19) \ Support Free Software and GNU/Linux
http://ciaran.compsoc.com/ _________ \ Join FSFE's Fellowship:
http://fsfe.org/fellows/ciaran/weblog \ http://www.fsfe.org
Document Freedom Day is March 26th (next Wednesday):
http://documentfreedom.org/
The national standards bodies will cast their votes on OOXML on March 29th,
so this is an opportunity to remind the bodies that the public is interested
and is watching what they do.
Here are the Benelux groups that have registered at the website:
http://www.documentfreedom.org/Category:Belgiumhttp://www.documentfreedom.org/Category:Netherlands
(no groups registered yet in Luxembourg)
It's not very clear what they are planning though.
Does anyone on this list have plans for events for this day?
Would anyone be interested in doing something in Brussels, maybe outside the
European Parliament in the evening time?
--
Ciarán O'Riordan (+32 477 36 44 19) \ Support Free Software and GNU/Linux
http://ciaran.compsoc.com/ _________ \ Join FSFE's Fellowship:
http://fsfe.org/fellows/ciaran/weblog \ http://www.fsfe.org
The result, by Andy Updegrove:
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=2008022905531…
Sean Daly interviews Andy Updegrove
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080229171250199
I'm no ISO procedure expert, but my understanding is: after 5 days of
discussion, the voting members at ISO's Ballot Resolution Meeting decided
not to approve the OOXML specification. There simply wasn't enough time to
discuss the numerous problems and the numerous proposed solutions. The
final decision will be in 30 days time, but since the issues raised last
September are officially unresolved, rejection by ISO is almost certain.
In the interview, Andy explains the importance of standards in society
(access to government), why the ISO process was creaking under the strain of
this application, and some comments on anti-trust law.
And if this puts you in the celebrating spirit, get involved in Document
Freedom Day this March 26th: http://documentfreedom.org/
--
Ciarán O'Riordan (+32 477 36 44 19) \ Support Free Software and GNU/Linux
http://ciaran.compsoc.com/ _________ \ Join FSFE's Fellowship:
http://fsfe.org/fellows/ciaran/weblog \ http://www.fsfe.org