Open Source News

AT: Increasing number of schools turn to open source — published on Jul 25, 2010

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The number of schools in Austria that are considering to use or are using open source is increasing, according to school IT administrators and open source developers involved in education.

EU: 3.3 million to continue projects on open source and reusable data — published on Jul 17, 2010

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The European Commission is planning to spend 3.344 million Euro until 2016 to continue the services provided by its projects - such as OSOR.eu and Semic.eu - on open source and on electronic data exchange.

FR: Defence ministry to test open source office tools — published on Jul 17, 2010

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France's ministry of Defence will next year test open source office productivity tools, according to answers given by the ministry to written questions by Bernard Carayon, a member of France's parliament, about a framework contract with a proprietary software vendor.

ES: 'Involve universities and local tech companies when moving to open source' — published on Jul 15, 2010

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Public administrations considering a move to open source, should make sure they involve universities and IT companies, said Martin Garcia, head of IT at the department for Infrastructure and Transport at the Valencia regional administration, yesterday at a conference in the city of Guadalajara, Spain.

PT: "Nearly all school children getting familiar with open source' — published on Jul 14, 2010

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Almost all school children in Portugal are becoming familiar with using open source, including the Linux operating system, says Paulo Trezentos, founder of Caixa Mágica Software.

UK: 'Government should move to open source to save money' — published on Jul 14, 2010

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Government workers in the United Kingdom suggest the administration moves to open source software, replacing proprietary operating systems and proprietary office tools, in order to save money.

Kroes on open source in public administrations: "Attitudes are changing" — published on Jul 13, 2010

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Public administrations are improving their opinion on open source, finds Vice-President of the European Commission Neelie Kroes. In a video speech addressing an open source software conference taking place later this month, she says: "We do not yet have a true level playing field, but thankfully attitudes are changing."

CH: Court approves purchase of proprietary licences without tender — published on Jul 07, 2010

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Switzerland's Federal Administrative Court yesterday decided that a government organisation's renewal of its proprietary software licences without a public tender does not harm the business interests of open source software service providers

DE: CIO German government calls for open standards — published on Jul 07, 2010

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Germany's Federal Government Commissioner for Information Technology, Cornelia Rogall-Grothe, wants to use open standards to ensure interoperability and independence from IT vendors, she says in an interview published by C'T magazine this week

IT: Bolzano region begins discussion on open source strategy — published on Jul 07, 2010

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The administration of the Bolzano region in Italy will discuss its IT strategy with advocates of free and open source. The director of the IT department has accepted an invitation by the regional Linux user group (Lugbz) and the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE).

'Over seventy cases studies on OSOR just the beginning' — published on Jun 18, 2010

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The European Union's Open Source Observatory and Repository (OSOR.eu) has so far published 72 case studies. It's most recent one, on the OSOR itself, was published last week.

EU agency publishes tool to check trade mark names and meaning — published on Jun 15, 2010

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The prototype of a tool to check whether the name of a trade mark application has a meaning in any of the EU's official languages, is published as open source by the EU's Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM), the agency that is responsible for registering trade marks and designs.

SE: Public administrations lack awareness on electronic documents — published on Jun 15, 2010

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Swedish public organisations lack policies on how to maintain electronic documents, and fail to understand the importance of open standards, researchers from the University of Skövde say in a paper published this month. "This is in stark contrast to stated central government policy."

Debate on government's use of open source and open data — published on Jun 14, 2010

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Public administration's using open source and open standards and governmental institutions that are making their data publicly available are two of the themes of this year's Open World Forum conference in Paris.

Commissioner Kroes: 'IT vendor dependence is a waste of public money' — published on Jun 14, 2010

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Public administrations should avoid being locked in by IT vendors, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes said last week Thursday. "This is a waste of public money that public bodies can no longer afford."