freedom

Webinar: Introduction to the new OSOR and its Knowledge Centre

The Open Source Observatory (OSOR), part of the ISA² Sharing and reuse action, is glad to present the new structure of the OSOR collection and introduce the Knowledge Centre and its components. Considering your expertise on open source software, the European Commission cordially invites you to participate in this webinar called “Introduction to the new OSOR … Read more

Creativity in the Countryside: How Art and Tech are Revitalizing Epirus

Tzoumerka is made of stone. Not just the towering peaks of this mountainous area, formed by nature and geography over millennia, but almost everything made by human hands — the walls, town squares, bridges and buildings — has been crafted from the local stone. It creates quite an impression: permanence, timelessness and a resistance to … Read more

Content Moderation is Broken. Let Us Count the Ways.

Social media platforms regularly engage in “content moderation”—the depublication, downranking, and sometimes outright censorship of information and/or user accounts from social media and other digital platforms, usually based on an alleged violation of a platform’s “community standards” policy. In recent years, this practice has become a matter of intense public interest. Not coincidentally, thanks to … Read more

PSI re-use in the public sector

The European Data Portal (EDP) initiative does research on current topics related to open data and publishes the findings, for example, in form of analytical reports. The analytical report no 11 focuses on the challenges of PSI re-use in the public sector and gives recommendations on how to support and realise successful PSI re-use in … Read more

Participating organizations announced and technical writer exploration phase open

The list of 50 participating open source organizations for Season of Docs 2019 is now available at https://developers.google.com/season–of–docs/docs/participants/. Are you a technical writer interested in taking part in Season of Docs? Please explore the list of participating organizations and their project ideas. If any of the projects interest you, you can contact the open source … Read more

We do not support the EU Copyright Directive in its current form. Here’s why you shouldn’t either.

The final text of the copyright directive for the digital single market will harm access to knowledge and unduly benefit large corporations and rightsholder industries. Despite the text’s carve outs, Wikimedia cannot support a reform that, at its core, aims to radically control the sharing of information online. After a long legislative process, the final … Read more

France enters the Matrix

Matrix is an open platform for secure, decentralized, realtime communication. Matthew Hodgson, the Matrix project leader, came to FOSDEM to describe Matrix and report on its progress. Attendees learned that it was within days of having a 1.0 release and found out how it got there. He also shed some light on what happened when … Read more

Huawei case demonstrates importance of Free Software for security

The discussion of the Huawei security concerns showcases a general trust issue when it comes to critical infrastructure. A first step to solve this problem is to publish the code under a Free and Open Source Software licence and take measures to facilitate its independently-verifiable distribution. The ongoing debate about banning Huawei hardware for the … Read more

Interim evaluation of the programme on interoperability solutions for administrations, businesses and citizens

About this consultation Feedback period: 7 December 2018 – 1 March 2019 Topic: Digital economy and society, Institutional affairs Target audience We welcome contributions from: i) citizens; ii) businesses; iii) associations representing businesses or professionals; iv) associations representing consumers or the civil society; v) public administrations. Why we are consulting This public consultation aims to … Read more

Cities agree on minimal interoperability mechanisms

Over a hundred European cities have agreed on ‘Minimal Interoperability Mechanisms’ defining the communication between software programmes and building blocks to allow co-creation and sharing of services. The MIMs, advocated by the Open & Agile Smart Cities (OASC) initiative, are “simple steps towards using new technology”, OACS chairman Martin Brynskov said on Thursday. “The MIM … Read more