http://www.osor.eu The Open Source Observatory and Repository for European public administrations (OSOR) is a platform for exchanging information, experiences and FLOSS-based code for use in public administrations. daily 1 2008-05-16T19:42:27Z http://www.osor.eu/news/be-minister-open-source-prevents-monopolies-increases-innovation "Open source prevents monopolies, helps to share knowledge and increases social innovation", says Vincent Van Quickenborne, Belgium's minister for the Simplification of the Administration. He expects that public administrations will increasingly turn to this type of software, in part because it helps to cut costs. No publisher [GL] Belgium [T] General Topic 2010-03-17T14:13:56Z News Item http://www.osor.eu/news/ro-vendor-independence-not-a-political-issue-open-source-groups-say Free and open source enthusiasts in Romania say their politicians are not yet interested in fighting for vendor independence. No publisher [GL] Romania [T] General Topic 2010-03-17T15:00:03Z News Item http://www.osor.eu/news/be-three-e-id-projects-published-as-open-source The Belgian Federal ICT advisory body Fedict published on OSOR three open source software projects related to the country's electronic identity card. The tools are intended to increase usage of this e-ID card, but also to allow other developers to write applications for it. No publisher GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) [T] General Topic [T] Technical Aspects eid-community [GL] Belgium eID Community 2010-03-16T16:04:21Z News Item http://www.osor.eu/news/extremadura-publishes-agribusiness-supply-chain-tool-as-open-source The Extramadura government has published as open source JEXTraza, a supply chain tool meant to help agribusinesses verify and manage product information from source to destination. The tool is meant to be used in combination with OpenBravo, an open source enterprise resource system. No publisher [GL] Spain GNU General Public License (GPL) geographic information systems 2010-03-16T11:37:44Z News Item http://www.osor.eu/news/si-complaint-over-government-purchase-of-proprietary-software Slovenia's court of Auditors and Slovenia's anti-corruption authority have received an anonymous complaint regarding the government's procuring of proprietary software licences for computer operating systems and office applications, Slovenian media reported last Month. No publisher [GL] Slovenia national-forges-community local government [T] Legal Aspects 2010-03-08T16:14:04Z News Item http://www.osor.eu/news/eu-osor-user-survey-part-of-thesis-on-governmental-open-source-use A survey aimed at public administrators using the Open Source Observatory and Repository (OSOR.eu) will be made part of a larger research into public organisation's use of open source. No publisher [T] General Topic [GL] EU and Europe-wide [T] Evaluations, Pilots and Studies 2010-02-26T20:22:54Z News Item http://www.osor.eu/news/de-vendor-independence-a-non-issue-in-consolidation-of-government-it Germany's federal government last December announced that it wants to consolidate several of its IT departments, in order to cut costs and reduce power consumption. Vendor independence is not mentioned, according to Silicon.de, a German IT news site. No publisher [T] General Topic [GL] Germany 2010-02-26T13:57:06Z News Item http://www.osor.eu/news/spanish-governments-adds-software-development-site-to-osors-list The Spanish government's Technology Transfer Centre (CTT) is the newest name on the list of federated open source software sites in the European Union. No publisher [T] Deployments and Migrations eupl-community [GL] EU and Europe-wide [GL] Spain European Union Public License (EUPL) 2010-02-26T07:17:09Z News Item http://www.osor.eu/news/nl-vendor-lock-in-frustrating-open-open-source-desktop-projects Vendor lock-in is forcing two municipalities in the Netherlands to stick to using proprietary office applications and other desktop software. The city of Amsterdam is saying it's move to open source on the desktop cannot be realised any time soon. The city of Heerenveen has canned its migration to OpenOffice. No publisher OpenOffice.org and ODF in public authorities [GL] The Netherlands municipalities-community OpenOffice [T] Deployments and Migrations Office Suites Office/Business 2010-03-01T10:19:43Z News Item http://www.osor.eu/news/encoding-tool-to-speed-up-workflow-of-aid-organisations A tool intended to make it easier for aid organisation to electronically exchange proposals and reports with the European Union's Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) was published as open source earlier this month at the OSOR, the EU's Open Source Observatory and Repository. No publisher Java [GL] EU and Europe-wide eupl-community eid-community [T] Deployments and Migrations EUPL community eID Community European Union Public License (EUPL) 2010-03-01T09:49:25Z News Item