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EU - Commission proposes a comprehensive reform of data protection rules

2012-01-26T14:12:00.000+01:00

(RAPID)
The European Commission has proposed a comprehensive reform of the EU's data protection rules. The Commission's proposals update and modernise the principles enshrined in the 1995 Data Protection Directive to guarantee privacy rights in the future. They include a policy Communication setting out the Commission's objectives and two legislative proposals: a Regulation setting out a general EU framework for data protection and a Directive on protecting personal data processed for the purposes of prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of criminal offences and related judicial activities.

EU - Setting up the European Cloud Partnership

2012-01-26T14:05:00.000+01:00

(RAPID)
Speeh by Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, World Economic Forum Davos, Switzerland, 26th January 2012.

EU - Coalition of top tech & media companies to make internet better place for kids

2011-12-02T10:09:00.000+01:00

(RAPID)
28 leading companies have come together to form a new Coalition to make a better and safer internet for children. Put together by the Commission, founding Coalition members are: Apple, BSkyB, BT, Dailymotion, Deutsche Telekom, Facebook, France Telecom-Orange, Google, Hyves, KPN, Liberty Global, LG Electronics, Mediaset, Microsoft, Netlog, Nintendo, Nokia, Opera Software, Research in Motion, RTL Group, Samsung, Sulake, Telefonica, TeliaSonera, Telenor Group, Tuenti, Vivendi, Vodafone. Priority actions include making it easier to report harmful content, ensuring privacy settings are age-appropriate, and offering wider options for parental control, reflecting the needs of a generation that is going online at an increasingly young age.

EU - Who feeds the artist ?

2011-11-22T13:30:00.000+01:00

(RAPID)
Speech by Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, Forum d'Avignon 19 November 2011, Avignon, France. Is the current copyright system the right and only tool to achieve our objectives? Not really, I'm afraid. We need to keep on fighting against piracy, but legal enforceability is becoming increasingly difficult; the millions of dollars invested trying to enforce copyright have not stemmed piracy. Meanwhile citizens increasingly hear the word copyright and hate what is behind it. Sadly, many see the current system as a tool to punish and withhold, not a tool to recognise and reward.

EU - Poland loses case on PSI Directive

2011-11-02T19:11:00.000+01:00

(Europa)
Case C362/10 - The Court of Justice of the EU confirmed that Poland failed to transpose the PSI Directive correctly. The Court agreed with the Commission in regards of all grievances. In particular, the Court stated that persons who would like to re-use PSI should know in which circumstances they can rely on respect of conditions of re-use established by the PSI Directive. According to the Court a national regulation on access to documents is not, by itself, susceptible of transposing the provisions of the Directive with the clarity necessary to satisfy the requirements of legal security and enabling persons who would like to re-use public documents to know all their rights. The Court also stated that a fact that a certain activity is not exercised in a Member State does not dispense that Member State from transposing all the provision of a directive. Such obligation lies on all Members States in order to prevent any possible modifications and to guarantee that everyone in the EU, also in those Member States who don't exercise certain activities, know with clarity and precision and in all circumstances the full scope of their rights and obligations. The full text of the judgement.

EU - Commission requests Estonia and Slovakia to comply with public sector information rules

2011-10-27T18:40:00.002+02:00

(RAPID)
The European Commission has requested Estonia and Slovakia to bring their laws in line with EU rules on the re-use of public sector information (PSI). These countries are not currently guaranteeing fair conditions for re-use of public sector information, in breach of the EU's PSI Directive. Estonia and Slovakia have failed to correctly implement most provisions of the Directive, including the prohibition of discriminatory or monopolistic practices by public bodies.

EU - Opening up Europe: from Common Standards to Open Data

2011-09-23T15:23:00.000+02:00

(RAPID)
Speech by Neelie Kroes, Vice President, European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, OpenForum Europe Summit 2011, Brussels 22nd September 2011. I am convinced that the potential to re-use public data is significantly untapped. Such data is a resource, a new and valuable raw material. Since 2003 the Directive on the re-use of public sector information has regulated this field establishing the principle that public authorities should make data available and let individuals and businesses make use of it. Our consultation on the review of that Directive got a wide response. The consensus was that the principles of the Directive are valid, namely, the importance of public sector information as a raw material and the economic and social value in its re-use. But we need to clarify how those principles are put into practice. And maybe get rid of a few exceptions or loopholes. We'll be looking at the way data is disclosed - the formats and the way data licenses operate to make re-use straightforward in practice. We'll also be looking at charging regimes because expensive data isn't "open data". will also be updating the rules for the re-use of our own data. We are planning two data portals to give simple and systematic access to public data at European level.

UK - Mixed results since Blair's 'dangerous' Freedom of Information Act launched

2011-09-21T16:04:00.000+02:00

(Guardian)
"Freedom of Information Act. Three harmless words. I look at those words as I write them, and feel like shaking my head 'til it drops off. You idiot. You naive, foolish, irresponsible nincompoop. There is really no description of stupidity, no matter how vivid, that is adequate. I quake at the imbecility of it." Thus Tony Blair records in his memoirs what he believes to have been one of his greatest mistakes while in office: introducing legislation intended to shed light on government in a manner that empowered people.

Commission brokers agreement on out-of-commerce books

2011-09-21T10:34:00.001+02:00

(RAPID)
Michel Barnier, European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services, presided over the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in which libraries, publishers, authors, and their collecting societies have agreed to a set of Key Principles that will give European libraries and similar cultural institutions the possibility to digitise and make available on line out-of-commerce books and learned journals which are part of their collections. Collecting societies representing right holders in books and learned journals will play a key role in the practical implementation of the MoU which should substantially facilitate the negotiation and acquisition of the licences that libraries and similar cultural institutions need to digitise and put on line an important part of their archives (i.e. the books and learned journals in their collections which are out-of-commerce). See also MEMO/11/619.

Working for Rupert Murdoch

2011-08-08T18:12:00.000+02:00

(Desiderata)
by John Carr. I worked for News Corporation for about two and a half years, until the end of 2009. At first I gloried in the title of Vice President of MySpace, Safety and Security, Europe. Rupert Murdoch Murdoch completely rejected a laissez faire philosophy in relation to content appearing on his site. The company insisted on using a blocking list to prevent anybody posting links to any web sites known to contain child abuse images. They helped develop a US-wide system which allowed MySpace to seek out anyone with a conviction for sex offences and kick them off.

ICANN - .xxx: Der Internet-Rotlichtbezirk öffnet

2011-08-08T18:03:00.000+02:00

(Heise)
ICM Registry, Betreiber des ersten Rotlichbezirks im Internet, hat die Termine für den Beginn der Vorregistrierungen und die generelle Öffnung der .xxx-TLD bekannt gegeben. Zwischen 7. September und 28. Oktober 2011 können etablierte Erotikanbieter ihre eingetragenen Marken unter .xxx vorregistrieren oder Markeninhaber anderer Branchen ihren Namen sichern.

UK - Making Open Data Real: A Public Consultation

2011-08-08T17:37:00.000+02:00

(Cabinet Office)
The Open Data consultation paper sets out Government's proposed approach for Transparency and Open Data Strategy, which is aimed at establishing a culture of openness and transparency in public services. We want to hear from everyone – citizens, businesses, public services themselves, and other interest groups – on how we can best embed a culture of openness and transparency in our public services. The proposed approach is fundamentally about creating a 'pull' (an enhanced right to data) and a 'push' (a presumption of publication). The consultation seeks the public's views on: how we might enhance a 'right to data', establishing stronger rights for individuals, businesses and other actors to obtain data from public service providers; how to set transparency standards that enforce this right to data; how public service providers might be held to account for delivering open data; how we might ensure collection and publication of the most useful data; how we might make the internal workings of government and the public sector more open; how far there is a role for government to stimulate enterprise and market making in the use of open data. Deadline for responses: 27 October 2011

UK - Consultation on Data Policy for a Public Data Corporation

2011-08-08T17:33:00.000+02:00

(Cabinet Office)
Government is exploring what more it can do to maximise the growth opportunities from data that public sector organisations collect more freely available. In January this year, the Government announced its intention to create a Public Data Corporation (PDC). The Government has already made progress toward the establishment of a PDC, through bringing under single departmental sponsorship three organisations: HM Land Registry, Met Office and Ordnance Survey. This consultation explores questions on key aspects of data policy – charging, licensing and regulation of public sector information produced by the PDC for re-use – that will determine how a PDC can deliver against all its objectives. Deadline for responses: 27 October 2011

UK - Public Task Guidance Published

2011-08-08T17:26:00.000+02:00

(National Archives)
The term public task is used in the Regulations on the Re-use of Public Sector Information (PSI Regulations) and is one of the factors that determine whether information produced, collected or held by the public sector falls within the scope of the PSI Regulations. The National Archives has developed guidance that will assist public sector bodies to define and publish a statement of their respective public tasks. This guidance was developed following discussion and consultation with expert practitioners in the field.

SK - Court asks website to filter public procurement open data

2011-07-28T18:17:00.000+02:00

(EDRI-gram)
Fair-Play Alliance (AFP), a Slovak non-governmental organization operating znasichdani.sk site, was required by a Bratislava District Court to take down from the website information related to certain public procurement contracts. The website was created in March 2011 in order to provide "a tool that would enable journalists and watchdogs to cross-check information about companies successful in public procurements with influential persons in these companies".

UK - Land Registry, Met Office and Ordnance Survey become part of the BIS Family

2011-07-23T16:07:00.000+02:00

(COI)
The Prime Minister announced that responsibility for the Land Registry, Met Office and Ordnance Survey will pass to the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS). The Department’s Permanent Secretary, Martin Donnelly, welcomed the move, which marks a significant step towards establishment of a Public Data Corporation, plans for which were announced by the Government in January this year.

UK - Music rights body wants 'traffic light' indications of infringing material in search results

2011-07-23T15:32:00.000+02:00

(OUT-LAW News)
Search engine results should indicate whether material on websites is in breach of copyright law or not, a music licensing group has said. The Performing Rights Society for Music (PRSM) has proposed that search engines display 'traffic light' marks to allow internet users to determine what content is legitimate. It says the measure would help combat against illegal file-sharing by appealing to users' moral conscience.

EuropeanaConnect - Geographical Information Service Tools

2011-07-22T17:02:00.000+02:00

(EuropeanaConnect)
GIS Tools developed in EuropeanaConnect allow users to query and display Europeana content based on spatial information, and to discover new relationships between content items, based on location. The EuropeanaConnect Gazetteer will give service providers access to over 9 million geographic names, co-ordinates, and boundaries. By enriching Europeana's metadata with these geographic references, it will be possible to identify features such as continents, countries, cities, monuments and rivers contained in the objects on Europeana. The information in the EuropeanaConnect Gazetteer has been collected from free data sources, which means there are no legal constraints to its use and re-use. The Geoparser is a web service that will use information extraction techniques to automatically identify names of places and historical periods that are mentioned in the unstructured text. The user then receives a list of geographic features that are referred to in that text. When used together with a gazetteer it has the capacity to assign coordinates and dates with the mentioned places and periods.

Europeana - Girl with a pearl earring — our users' favourite

2011-07-22T16:59:00.000+02:00

(Europeana)
She is still leading Europeana's top ten. For months already, Girl with a pearl earring by Johannes Vermeer has been one of the most viewed objects on Europeana. What is it about this painting that fascinates the viewers?

EU - Implementation of a European Commission open data portal

2011-07-19T09:39:00.001+02:00

Call for tenders to purchase services:

to develop and administer a web portal to act as a single point of access to data sets produced and held by European Commission services (and by extension to data sets produced and held by other European institutions/bodies and other public bodies),
to assist the Commission with the definition and implementation of a data set publication process,
to assist the Commission with the preparation of data sets for publication via the portal,
to assist the Commission in supporting for engaging the community interested in re-using the published data sets.

Maximum value: 800 000 EUR. Time-limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate 19.9.2011 - 16:00.

Data-hugging excuses

2011-07-18T14:35:00.002+02:00

(library dr0ide)
Andrew Stott (@DirDigEng) gave this sample of "data hugging" excuses in his presentation at OKCON 2011 on Implementing an Open Data programme within government:

It's held separately by n different organisations and we can't join it up
It will make people angry and scared without helping them
It is technically impossible
We do not own the data
The data is just too large to be published and used
Our website cannot hold files this large
We know the data is wrong
We know the data is wrong, and people will tell us when it's wrong
We know the data is wrong, and we will waste valuable resources inputting the corrections people send us
People will draw superficial conclusions from the data without understanding the wider picture
People will construct league tables from it
It will generate more Freedom of Information requests
It might be combined with other data to identify individuals/sensitive information
It will cost too much to put it into a standard format
Our IT suppliers will charge us a fortune to do an ad hoc extract

EU - Open access to scientific information - Commission seeks views

2011-07-15T14:24:00.001+02:00

(RAPID)
A public consultation on access to, and preservation of, digital scientific information has been launched by the European Commission. European researchers, engineers and entrepreneurs must have easy and fast access to scientific information, to compete on an equal footing with their counterparts across the world. Modern digital infrastructures can play a key role in facilitating access. However, a number of challenges remain, such as high and rising subscription prices to scientific publications, an ever-growing volume of scientific data, and the need to select, curate and preserve research outputs. Open access, defined as free access to scholarly content over the Internet, can help address this. Scientists, research funding organisations, universities, and other interested parties are invited to send their contributions on how to improve access to scientific information. The consultation will run until 9 September 2011.

High level discussions on online tracking

2011-07-05T08:44:00.000+02:00

(EDRI-gram)
A meeting organised jointly by the University of Berkeley and the Institute for Information Law of the University of Amsterdam drew together an outstanding collection of international experts, NGOs and industry representatives to discuss online tracking protection and browsers.

EU - Digital Agenda: "Best children's online content" competition winners

2011-06-17T16:34:00.000+02:00

(RAPID)
Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda has presented awards to the creators of the best online content, intelligent games, interactive online magazines or websites aimed at under 12 year olds. The Commission, together with Safer Internet Centres from 14 countries, received 780 projects in response to the "Best children's online content" competition, designed to encourage the creation of quality content and to highlight the existing potential for kids online. This first competition was open to young people and adults, NGOs, public and commercial organisations. Three winners in each of the two categories (young people and adults) received the awards. Winners came from Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands and Poland.

EU - Digital Agenda: awards for creative reuse of open data

2011-06-17T11:42:00.000+02:00

European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes awarded prizes to the winners of the Open Data Challenge and Hack4Europe! competitions at the Digital Agenda Assembly being held in Brussels on 16th and 17th June 2011. Ms Kroes said: "I am amazed by the creative ways I have seen today for public data collected by public administrations, the collections digitised by our cultural Institutions (libraries, archives, museums) to be put to good use. Public data at large is a valuable source for innovation, as today's winners clearly show."

Open Knowledge Foundation

Open Forum Academy

Share-PSI initiative

Applications: Eva Vozarova of the Fair-play Alliance, Slovakia has developed an app to add transparency to the public procurement process of government contracts.
Ideas: Jonas Gebhardt of the University of Potsdam, Germany has developed a mobile application which can help citizens learn more about urban planning in their area.
Visualisations: Oliver O'Brien of University College London, UK has developed an app to visualise the current state of bike-share systems in over 30 cities around the world.
Public sector datasets: Codrina Maria Ilie of the National Institute for Research and Development in Environmental Protection, Romania has developed an app that collects thousands of old historical geo-referenced maps.