European Union (EU)

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European Commission Launches Interoperable Europe, The New Policy Framework For Interoperability In The European Union

On November 21st, the European Commission announced the launch of Interoperable Europe, the initiative for a reinforced interoperability policy in the EU that replaces the ISA2 Program and is funded by the new Digital Europe Programme, a new funding program focused on digitalization for businesses, citizens and public administrations.Interoperable Europe represents the policy framework for pursuing, supporting, developing and promoting interoperability across the European Union. On the financial side, it is funded by the part of the Digital Europe Program dedicated to interoperability.

European Parliament To Weigh Open Source Pilots

Gijs Hillenius | JoinUp | June 18, 2014

Next Monday, the European Parliament's budget committee will consider a proposal from the Green/EFA group to pilot the use of open source encryption software, to be used by parliament members and their staff. The Green/EFA group is also asking to trial the use of open standards and open source to make available the EP's data available in machine-readable format...

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European Union (EU) Joinup Web Site

I have been following Gijs Hillenius for the past year on several social media and news sites. He is a journalist with over 25 years of experience and is currently the news editor of the Open Source Repository & Observatory (OSOR). The focus of many of his posts is on the use of open source and open standards by national, regional, and local governments across the European Union (EU). Read More »

European Union eHealth Task Force Report

The European Union eHealth Task Force just released a report entitled "Redesigning Health in Europe for 2020".   This is an excellent and concise report on changes the EU nations need to make to radically improve the way these countries and their citizens manage and receive health care. The report focuses on how to achieve a vision of affordable, less intrusive and more personalized care. Their vision calls on the use of Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) and 'open' access to healthcare data to increase the quality of life and improve mortality rates for its citizens.

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European Union Launches CKAN Data Portal

Mark Wainwright | Open Knowledge Foundation Blog | February 25, 2013

On Friday, to coincide with Saturday’s International Open Data Day, the European Commission (EC) unveiled a new data portal, which will be used to publish data from the EC and other bodies of the European Union. Read More »

Follow The Honey: 7 Ways Pesticide Companies Are Spinning The Bee Crisis

Michele Simon | Civil Eats | April 28, 2014

If you like to eat, then you should care about what’s happening to bees. Two-thirds of our food crops require pollination–the very foods that we rely on for healthy eating–such as apples, berries, and almonds, just to name a few. That’s why the serious decline in bee populations is getting more attention, with entire campaigns devoted to saving them. Read More »

French Interior Ministry: open source 5 to 10 times cheaper

Gijs Hillenius | Joinup | October 21, 2013

France's Ministry of the Interior says its use of Thunderbird, a free software email client, running on its 200 000 PCs since 2008, is five times cheaper than the use of the ubiquitous proprietary alternative... Read More »

German Coalition Favors German-Owned Or Open Source Software, Aims To Lock NSA Out

Loek Essers | PCWorld | December 17, 2013

Germany’s new coalition government listed open source software among its IT policy priorities, and said it will take steps to protect its citizens against espionage threats from the NSA and other foreign intelligence agencies. Read More »

Global Alliance Formed To Create Framework For Genomic Data Sharing

Susan D. Hall | FierceHealthIT | June 7, 2013

More than 70 major research and healthcare organizations from 41 countries have signed a letter of intent to create a framework for sharing genomic data worldwide, posted at the Broad Institute's website... Read More »

How "Open Source" Seed Producers from the U.S. to India Are Changing Global Food Production

Rachel Cernansky | Ensia | December 12, 2016

Frank Morton has been breeding lettuce since the 1980s. His company offers 114 varieties, among them Outredgeous, which last year became the first plant that NASA astronauts grew and ate in space. For nearly 20 years, Morton’s work was limited only by his imagination and by how many different kinds of lettuce he could get his hands on. But in the early 2000s, he started noticing more and more lettuces were patented, meaning he would not be able to use them for breeding...

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How Healthy Are We?

Nazimun Nessa | Dhaka Tribune | March 29, 2017

Reliable data on health is an essential part of a comprehensive health information system, which is central to evidence-informed, responsive decision-making for better public health program. A well-functioning health information system also helps policy-makers and program managers to monitor population health and plan interventions accordingly. In line with the vision of a Digital Bangladesh, one of the more significant changes that have happened in our health sector is transforming paper-based health reporting into an electronic health information system, along with initiating a medical record system through the Open MRS software...

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How the Open Knowledge Lab is Using Open Source Smog Sensors to Improve Air Quality in Germany

Stuttgart, Germany has, like many other cities, a smog problem—even if it may be less severe than in other cities. The European Union has defined a threshold of on average 50 micrograms of dust particles per cubic meter in a 24-hour window of air to be allowed for a maximum of 35 days a year. For the last few years, actual values have been much higher for more than 35 days. There are governmental stations that measure the air pollution, but they can’t be everywhere for obvious reasons. The Open Knowledge Lab in Stuttgart, Germany has begun to develop their own IoT sensors that measure air quality every minute and report the data to a central server. It is then possible to display the smog levels on a map. See the map we're using...

In Dramatic Statement, European Leaders Call for ‘Immediate’ Open Access to All Scientific Papers by 2020

Martin Enserink | Science | May 27, 2016

In what European science chief Carlos Moedas calls a "life-changing" move, E.U. member states today agreed on an ambitious new open-access (OA) target. All scientific papers should be freely available by 2020, the Competitiveness Council—a gathering of ministers of science, innovation, trade, and industry—concluded after a 2-day meeting in Brussels. But some observers are warning that the goal will be difficult to achieve...

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Involving government in 'open source' is hard but profitable

Gijs Hillenius | EU Joinup | September 30, 2013

Getting public administrations involved in communities of developers of free and open source solutions "is not easy", says Cenatic, the Spanish government's resource centre on open source. Read More »

Key Evidence Withheld as 'Trade Secret' in EU's Controversial Risk Assessment of Glyphosate

EFSA | Corporate Europe Observatory | February 17, 2016

Companies who make the pesticide glyphosate refuse to disclose key scientific evidence about its possible risks in the name of trade secrets protection. CEO appeals to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to disclose all the possible original elements of three key scientific studies it used in assessing glyphosate as “unlikely” to cause cancer to humans. We also call MEPs to reject the Trade Secrets Directive in the April 2016 plenary vote on the final text...

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