Around the world, plant breeders are resisting what they see as corporate control of the food supply by making seeds available for other breeders to use. This article reports on a number of important new initiatives that have the potential to integrate the various projects and movements working against the enclosure of living material and … Read more
Open data is already a reality for scientific researchers, especially for those in Social Sciences. Researchers are making data openly available and — in turn — are re-using open data from others in their research. For a lot of researchers, a data citation has a much value as an article citation. These are some of … Read more
In recent weeks, OSHWA met one of its initial goals: to start certifying open-source hardware. The goal of certification is to clearly identify open-source hardware separate from the mish-mash of other hardware products. The certification allows hardware designs to be replicated. For certification, the Open Source Hardware Association requires hardware creators to publish a bill-of-materials list, software, … Read more
Open source software provides an easy and affordable way to improve existing public services. According to the EC report ‘Analysis of the Value of New Generation of eGovernment Services and How Can the Public Sector Become an Agent of Innovation through ICT‘, it allows a single developer to incrementally build human services based on publicly … Read more
Using open source has set the city of Limerick (Ireland) free to modernise its organisation. The city merged several isolated department front-desks into one modern customer centre, with the customer relations management system and other open source solutions greatly improving service levels. Not encumbered by the limitations of proprietary licences, Limerick could customise applications to … Read more
There is general consensus in both government and businesses that “Openness” is both pivotal and a positive. Few would seek voluntarily to be labeled ‘closed’ and inevitably ‘open’ can be tagged to a product or service by many companies seeking a little ‘magic dust’ in support of its marketing. But maybe with little attempt to … Read more
For the second time in just three months, the European Parliament has called on the European Commission to to increase the share of free and open source software. On 19 January, in a so-called own-initiative report, the EP also urged the EC to use this type of software to promote reuse in and between public … Read more
The French Parliament wants to make it mandatory for the country’s public administrations to make public the source code of its custom-built software solutions. An amendment to France’s upcoming law for the Digital Republic was adopted by France’s lower house on Wednesday. The amendment by the National Assembly’s Law Committee makes source code of software … Read more
The French draft law Loi Numérique will be presented to the French Parliament on 19 January, after being co-created with citizens through an online public consultation. This is the first law in France resulting from a co-design process. This draft law is aimed at structuring the new French digital economy and includes new digital principles … Read more
Officially adopted on 25 November 2015 by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, ISA2 programme will begin on January 2016 and last until 31 December 2020 as a continuation of ISA. ISA programme, which ran from 2010 to 2015, was meant for the modernisation of the EU public sector. The proposal established a programme on interoperability … Read more
