Commercial Open Source Software

OpenOffice.org keeps doing well in Italy, the OpenOffice.org Italian Association announced that OpenOffice.org in Italy broke the four millions mark in less than 6 months, a growth of more than 196% compared with the previous year.

Italo Vignoli, PLIO’s president, said:

In Italy OpenOffice.org downloads exceeded the number of PC sold, steadily growing at an amazing rate.

Is time to vote for SourceForce open source community awards 2009, OpenOffice.org has been chosen as a finalist in the category of Best Project for Government.

OpenOffice.org fellows ask to vote for our beloved open source productive suite, and I invite you to do so unless you prefer other candidates (some of them actually like Trisano, Sahana or Medical deserve our attention too).

Funambol and JAJAH, the global IP communications company, today announced the world premiere of the new Go JAJAH service, to be launched exclusively in Italy.

The new service automatically updates a mobile phone address book, creating a local number for each international number, allowing callers to make international calls at local rates.

Continue reading ‘Funambol + JAJAH: Open Source SaaS in Action’

Assinform - the Italian association of Information & Communication Technology companies - will present on the 26 of June the first Italian Information Technology report 2009.

The report covers Italian IT market’s structure and evolution, summarizing results after surveying 1000 companies. The report compares also the Italian IT market with the most active European IT markets, and analyzes differences among Italian regions (Lombardia, Emilia Romagna, Lazio and others).

Registrations are now open.

The European edition of the OpenSQLCamp 2009, will take place in Sankt Augustin (Germany) on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd within the Free and Open Source Conference 2009 - the German conference now in its fourth year.

The goal of this event is to spread the word about the vibrant communities and large ecosystems around Open Source Databases and to educate the attendees about what alternatives exist to commercial databases. Continue reading ‘Open SQL Camp Europe 2009, 22-23 August, Sankt Augustin (Germany)’

Rajiv Shah and Jay Kesan wrote the paper “running code as part of an open standards policy” arguing that the “running code” requirement - i.e. multiple independent, interoperable implementations of an open standard - should be part of governments’ open standards policies.

Last week the Dutch government hosted the first ODF plugfest: creators, implementors and end-users met up to improve OpenDocument interoperability for real, and it worked out well.

Continue reading ‘ODF Interoperability: Rough Consensus and Running Code’

The Italian Institute for Policy Innovation launched a petition to ask the Italian senators to prevent the approval of the  new obligation provision equating bloggers to journalists.

The bill 1415A, already discussed and approved by the Chamber of Deputies, if approved also by the Italian Senate would require Italian bloggers to rectify eventual mistakes within 48 hours (fines goes up to 12,500 euros).

Sign the petition and spread the word.

Related blog posts (Italian):

Ernesto Belisario (author of the petition)

Guido Scorza (Italian Institute for Policy Innovation)

Punto Informatico (on line Italian magazine)

Using Zotero - Learn how to use Zotero to create and manage citations, see the video.

Certification Watch Volume 12 #7 - Sun launches OpenOffice.org certifications.

Exercise Chart - Template to create a list of the exercises for your fitness plan (personal use only).

The 2009 edition of Mind the Bridge has been open since May 25th, entrepreneurs have time until August 25th to send their business plan.

“Mind the Bridge”, now at its third edition, has renewed its blog, featuring a number of tips and hints for tomorrow’s innovators, included topics as how to write a business plan and advice for entrepreneurs.

The EOS directory, the list of enterprise open source applications launched two years ago by Optaros, has recently been handed over to Bruno von Rotz, initial sponsor of the initiative and well known open source specialist.

Today has been announced the EOS Directory Board, established over the last weeks by Bruno von Rotz to strengthen the neutral approach to ratings and selection of free software technologies.

Continue reading ‘Enterprise Open Source Directory Establishes Advisory Board’