Chief scribe
The contribution of open source to the economies of EU Member States is estimated to be worth some € 450 bn. annually according to a report of the first Open Forum Academy conference, which took place in Brussels on 24 September. This figure is made up of some €374 bn. in savings from the re-use […]
Some time ago we wrote to our local MP, Dawn Primarolo, about the Government’s proposed Draft Communications Bill, aka Snooper’s Charter (news passim), and we’re still awaiting the courtesy of a reply (or even an acknowledgement), Dawn! However, that’s by the by and there are other matters of greater import to report on the Snooper’s […]
The Portuguese local authority of Vieira do Minho in the far north of the country would appear to be an exemplar for the use of open source software for small local authorities everywhere, according to a report posted yesterday on the EU’s open source news website, Joinup. Vieira do Minho has been using open source […]
The Münchner IT-Blog, the IT blog of Munich city council in Germany, reports that its fellow council in Leipzig started a migration to the free open source office suite OpenOffice earlier this year. OpenOffice has since been installed on 3,900 of Leipzig’s 4,200 PC workstations and is now used as the standard office program within […]
Today, Monday 8th October, is the last day for registration for the LibreOffice Conference 2012, which, following a public poll, will be held in Berlin from 17th – 19th October 2012. The conference venue will be the Conference Centre of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. The conference programme reflects the broad engagement and […]
While Linux is running your phone (if it’s an Android. Ed.), tweets, financial trades, cash machines and much, much more, most people don’t know how it’s actually built. This short video from the Linux Foundation takes you inside the process by which the largest collaborative development project in the history of computing is organised. It’s […]
After looking over the Channel at the forthcoming Belgian local authority and provincial elections (news passim), we’re coming a bit closer to home. It cannot have escaped the attention of any Bristolian who hasn’t been in a coma for many months that an election will take place in November to select an elected mayor for […]
On 14th October, Belgium goes to the polls for local council and provincial elections. Joinup, the EU’s open source news website, reports that 278 election candidates have so far pledged their support for free and open source software. The pledges were garnered in a grass roots campaign comprising just 2 people who have been contacting […]
EU open source news website Joinup reports that the Administration the Italian region of Umbria has started a project to migrate an initial group of 5,000 users to LibreOffice. Osvaldo Gervasi, president of Umbria’s Open Source Competence Centre – CCOS – states that getting rid of IT vendor lock-in is one of the main motives […]
If you own or are thinking of getting a domain name ending in .uk, this consultation could be of interest to you. Nominet, the organisation that controls the .uk domain, is holding a three month consultation about the potential introduction of a new service known as direct.uk, which would be specifically designed for businesses which […]
Earlier this month, the government of Kenya announced that in the next three years it will move its IT operations to Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), a move that will reduce its IT costs by more than 50%, according to a report on the Kenyan news website Standard Digital. Needless to say, the announcement […]
One of the greatest benefits of using free and open source software is that it can be shared with others and reused by them. In these cash-strapped, austere times this is one aspect which public sector IT departments are discovering – in some places anyway. One hundred and fifty local authorities in the Walloon (French-speaking) […]
It’s been a busy time at Bristol Wireless lately. Our Jim was here till nearly 9 pm a couple of nights ago recovering some data for a customer from a dead laptop’s hard drive for transfer to a refurbished machine. In addition, Jim has also been attending to a sick Windows box infected by viruses […]
Mark Taylor of Sirius has been tweeting today about how the UK public sector is waking up to the security benefits of open source software. He’s now followed this up with the tweet below: Can only be a matter of time before we see security assured Open Source in the UK… and you can quote […]
French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has just distributed a circular on “Use of free software in the administration” (in French, PDF) to all government ministries, according to a report from Linuxfr.org. This circular marks a major advance for free software in the French State’s IT systems. It lists past successes and the most appropriate case […]
Now that I’ve got your attention, there are a couple of conditions, but we’ll come to them in a while. The October to December edition of Up Our Street, the magazine of Easton and Lawrence Hill Management, features a competition to win a Raspberry Pi, the little Linux box full of fruity, open source goodness, […]
Would you connect your body to a wireless network? Next Wednesday, 26th September, Knowle West Media Centre and Bristol University’s Professor Ian Craddock put on MyFi, an evening exploring future healthcare technologies in a relaxed, informal atmosphere. It’s free and open to anyone with an interest in science, technology and healthcare. You don’t need to […]
Last month the Italian Parliament approved an update to the country’s Digital Administration Code, making free and open source the default option for public sector organisations looking for new software solutions, Joinup reports. With effect from 12th August this year, Italy’s public sector bodies looking for new software solutions may either decide to develop their […]
A study by Prof. Jim Norton recommends that CIOs looking to replace legacy systems should consider open source options over proprietary software or public cloud services, according to a report published today by Australia’s ITNews. The report was commissioned by travel business giant Amadeus, assessed the role of open source software in critical transaction systems […]
Today, 15th September, is Software Freedom Day, an annual worldwide event to promote the role that free and open source technology can play in the modern world, where our everyday lives are increasingly dependent upon technology. At the time of writing, there are over 200 teams in 60 countries putting on events of which the […]