Last month, the European Commission officially launched the European Data Portal. The portal now hosts almost 400,000 datasets, almost twice as much as when the beta version was released last November. Here is an overview of the technical changes made since then: the Metadata Quality Assessment (MQA) has been enhanced and new graphs have been … Read more
European Research Council grants for code reviews The European Research Council (ERC) is funding several open source software research projects, including code audits, security testing and on cryptography. Each of four projects in Austria, France and Germany received just under EUR 2 million in so-called Consolidator Grants. One such grant was awarded to the code … Read more
Eric Schmidt is an influential figure, even among the parade of powerful characters with whom I have had to cross paths since I founded WikiLeaks. In mid-May 2011 I was under house arrest in rural Norfolk, about three hours’ drive northeast of London. The crackdown against our work was in full swing and every wasted … 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
Traditionally, Brussels is the place to go for Free Software enthusiasts and developers at the end of January. During FOSDEM, hundreds of experts talk about their beloved project and discuss the past, present and future of Open Source. It is a great place for meeting like-minded people. At the afternoon before the start of the conference, the Free SoftwareFoundation … 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 government of Galicia (Spain) has made available conference videos, presentation slides and training material that focus on the use of free and open source software by Non-Governmental Organisations. The ethical and philosophical characteristics of this type of software fits well with NGOs, including collaboration and community-building, argues Amtega, the region’s agency for technological modernisation. … Read more
Linux is everywhere these days. It runs our phones, the web servers that underpin everything from Facebook to Google, even our cars. That means there’s a bigger demand for people who know how to work with the operating system than ever before, and those jobs often pay good money. The Linux Foundation is a non-profit … 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
