Commercial Open Source Software

Updates from May, 2009 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Roberto Galoppini 6:09 pm on May 13, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: ECDL, IanLynch, INGOTs, OOoCon, open source education software, open source schools, openoffice ( 44 )   

  Skill Importance and accredited Qualifications Providers: the INGOTs 

  The EC in March 2009 decided to invest in physical infrastructures, in line with the conclusions of the last 2008 European Council stating the importance of developing broadband internet.

  The ECDL Foundation responded with a position paper outlining why ICT investments should be complemented by investments in skills development, and I asked an opinion to Ian Lynch, education lead for the OpenOffice.org community and the man behind a family of qualifications called The INGOTs.

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  Roberto Galoppini 2:40 pm on May 9, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: MarcoCappato ( 2 )   

  Upcoming European Elections: Marco Cappato 

  Net neutrality is at risk in Europe, the Telecoms package keeps popping up, the European software patents war is not over and we need to choose carefully our MEP candidates.

  CarloMarco Cappato has been fighting software patents since 2003, and I’m not surprised he just signed the free software pact, the initiative mentioned earlier this week. Now he asks for help, if you like what he did on digital freedoms for years it is time to help him to get elected.

  Killing Spurious Patents Before They Kill Us | Boycott Novell, Roberto Galoppini, Simo, and 1 other are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Claudio Menzani 3:26 pm on May 9, 2009 Permalink

    Nel testo hai scritto Carlo invece di Marco. 🙂

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    Simo 3:39 pm on May 9, 2009 Permalink

    Carlo Cappato -> Marco Cappato

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    Roberto Galoppini 10:37 am on May 10, 2009 Permalink

    Ciao Simo, Ciao Claudio, thank you both for the reminder!

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  Roberto Galoppini 10:33 pm on May 8, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: FUB, KennethCarter, network neutrality ( 4 )   

  Network Neutrality Italian Conference: Rome, 14th of May 2009 

  Kenneth R. Carter will give a speech at the Ugo Bordoni Foundation during the “socio-economical aspects of network neutrality” seminar, that will be held in Rome on the 14th of May 2009.

  Registrations are open.

   
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  Roberto Galoppini 5:25 pm on May 7, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: ForumPA ( 6 ), linkedin ( 4 )   

  Open Source Conference: ForumPA 2009 

  ForumPA, the greatest Italian event of and about Public Administration taking place in Rome from the 11th to the 14th of May 2009, will host a round-table to talk about “strategies to increase the use of open source for public administrations“.

  I am honored to have been asked again by Gianni Dominici,Vice General Director of ForumPA, to chair the session. I helped organizers to invited speakers from Italian and international public administrations to share their real experiences and best practices.

  No talk, just open source action!

   
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  Roberto Galoppini 2:30 pm on May 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: april, assoli ( 3 ), european elections ( 2 ), free software pack   

  European Elections: Free Software Associations launch the “Free Software Pack” 

  April, a pioneer of free software in France and Belgium, along with Assoli, the long-live Italian association devoted to the promotion of free software, are launching a joint campaign aimed at the European Parliament elections.

  The first Italian campaign in ten days hired 101 Italian candidates, 14 have been actually elected. Agrigento is one of them, and I didn’t hear back from them since then.

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  Roberto Galoppini and Andrea are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Andrea 4:16 pm on May 9, 2009 Permalink

    Free Software… “pack”?

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    Roberto Galoppini 10:33 am on May 10, 2009 Permalink

    Ciao Andrea, that’s the name of the initiative actually. Have a look at their website to learn more.

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    Andrea 10:15 pm on May 25, 2009 Permalink

    Well, it’s “Pact” not “Pack”… even in the URL itself.

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    Roberto Galoppini 5:16 pm on May 26, 2009 Permalink

    Thank you Andrea, I corrected it, thanks for your help!

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  Roberto Galoppini 11:10 am on May 4, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: network neutrality ( 4 ), Quadrature Du Net ( 2 )   

  European Network Neutrality: Time to Act! 

  Malcolm Harbour (IMCO report) and Catherine Trautmann (ITRE report) , rapporteurs of the main directives of the   Telecoms Package formerly rejected thanks to Trautmann, stopped to enforce net citizens fundamental rights.

  It is time to call your Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to ask them to vote again for the “CITIZEN RIGHTS AMENDMENTS”, in the second reading of the Telecoms Package.

  Learn more at the Quadrature du Net website. Act Now.

   
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  Roberto Galoppini 12:12 pm on April 27, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: free software ( 4 ), LuigiVimercate, network neutrality ( 4 ), participatory legislation, PD, VincenzoVita   

  Participatory Legislation: the Italian Democratic Party Launches a Wiki 

  New Zelanders have been given the chance to write their own laws in 2007, now it is Italian time: the Italian Democratic Party just launched a wiki to publicly discuss the bill ‘Network neutrality, free software and society‘.

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  Roberto Galoppini 12:08 pm on April 7, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: avoid lock-in, BudBruegger ( 2 ), eId, open source governance ( 13 ), open source identity management, open source policies, OSOR Case Study, OSOR Forge   

  Open Source Case Study and Open Source Governance 

  The OSOR Case Studies section this month covers Grosseto’s OpenPortalGuard eID system. The case study tells the story about an Italian case of excellence, started in 2003 when  the Italian government decided to introduce eID cards. Grosseto, to acquire an eID-based access control system for its ICT infrastructure, applied a rigorous open source strategy, aiming to cut implementation and operational costs.

  Is it a sustainable choice for small public administrations?

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  Open Source Case Study and Open Source Governance | Open Hacking is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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  Roberto Galoppini 5:09 pm on March 23, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: coopetition ( 2 ), European SMEs, innovation ( 3 ), open source communities ( 7 ), open source governance ( 13 ), open source markets, open source offering, stefanomiceli   

  Open Source Offering: Facts, Fear and Affirmative Action 

  “Open Source Offering in Italy: an Analysis of an evolving Sector” conference follow-up are addressed by Stefano Micelli on first draft blog. Stefano brings me in because of something I said at the conference, commenting a research finding saying that small firms tend not to partner with other firms.

  Affirmative action is needed to enable “lucrative coopetition“, in order to reduce R&D costs and foster innovation?

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  Roberto Galoppini 3:28 pm on March 20, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: agpl ( 2 ), BrucePerens, EUPL ( 3 ), gplv3 ( 4 ), IDABC ( 2 ), MartinMichlmayr ( 2 ), Open Source Initiative ( 3 ), OSI ( 3 ), Patrice-EmmanuelSchmitz   

  Open Source Licenses: EUPL got OSI Approval, but Still Doesn’t Show Up 

  The Open Source Initiative board, after visiting the European Commission, has finally approved the European Union Public license on the 4th of March.

  The EUPL 1.1 – the revisited version of the EUPL 1.0 including recommended modifications resulting from the OSI discussion – is supported by  the EUPL community. Stakeholders can share opinions and pose questions through the EUPL forums and blog.

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  Open Source mobile edition, Roberto Galoppini, and P-E Schmitz are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    P-E Schmitz 5:59 pm on March 21, 2009 Permalink

    Hi Roberto,
    Publishing legal instruments with equal value in all EU languages and letting European courts work with it, is really “business as usual” for the European Institutions: Community Law counts million pages, valid in 22 or 23 languages. In case of uncertainty, national courts may ask the European Court of Justice to clarify. It is a simple fact that the GPL V2 and V3 (relative) failure is that FSF was unable to deal with linguistic diversity (that they consider as a major risk; it is true that they do not benefit from a supra-national court to help). Having said that, the EUPL has other merits: the license complies with European flavour of copyright, information to consumer, warranty and liability. The most important however, is that the intention of EUPL promoters is not to compete with the GPL or any other license. The objective is long term: to bring more administrations to license their source. We are at the early beginning of this, but there are currently substantial move in this direction and several Member States consider policies to license under EUPL. Last, the EUPL has a compatibility list (with GPLV2 and other copyleft licenses). This is also unique: it would be interesting to try solving license proliferation through “mutual recognition” between a club of equivalent licenses, sharing the same compatibility list: this would also provide more freedom to developers. Who has comment on this idea? It is a fact – unfortunately – that “compatibility” is seen by the FSF as “compatibility in the one-way direction of GPL, GPLv3 and AGPLv3”. The reverse situation is not even imagined by the FSF, (and by the way, their current web site ignores totally the EUPL – remember Mahatma Gandhi: “First they ignored us…”). A last word about the “biased” comparison I did between the EUPL and GPLv3 during the EOLE event in Paris: Of course you can say it was biased! (since I am a EUPL advocate), but please do not take my comparison as an attack “against” the GPLv3: I just report facts: GPLv3 is about 3 times longer, is full of technical details, is complex (even for a lawyer) and as it is officially valid in English only it may not be the most persuasive license for a German or French administration. Could anyone object? Now if you are happy with GPLv3 and AGPLv3 no problems, go on!

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    Roberto Galoppini 9:55 pm on March 21, 2009 Permalink

    Hi Patrice-Emmanuel,

    I am glad you joined the conversation. I think that having a license (EUPL or not) translated in all European languages is a great thing.

    What I object to the EC is that you decided to go your way, instead of participating the GPLv3 process, managed with a public and transparent consultation.

    What I object to you is your adversarial approach. I believe that opening to FSF licenses is your concern, since you are trying to convince European public administrations to use the EUPL.

    Show them that is convenient, that they can still stand on the shoulders of giants, and try harder to consider GPL, and software licensed under the GPL, as your best friend, not a foe.

    My two European cents