Open Forum Europe

Washington, DC, December 22, 2008. The ranks of governments adopting the OpenDocument Format (ODF) continued to grow, as did the depth and range of ODF applications support, according to the annual report published by the ODF Alliance.

A new report says that large IT vendors are responsible for open source’s accelerated adoption and change.

From the report:

While open source software is omnipresent, and its presence is growing more rapidly than previously estimated, the basic nature of open source software is changing from project-based, developer-driven community initiatives to vendor-driven, and vendor-owned, software. One result of this is to make traditional methods of measuring open source’s presence and roles within user enterprises impractical.

Although most of the thunder of the OOXML adoption battle has now died away, the after effects of that controversial process continue to linger. Some of the residual effects have been intangible, such as hard feelings on the part of at least four National Bodies over their inability to obtain a formal review of their complaints over how the OOXML adoption process was conducted. But there have been other responses that are more concrete, and directed at taking specific actions to raise the bar and avoid a repeat performance. One of those efforts has been ongoing since late last spring, and today the first tangible results of that effort are being made public.

In a historic move, HP is releasing a mainstream business desktop that runs on Linux rather than Microsoft Windows.

Meanwhile, IBM has gone one better and released the Virtual Linux Desktop, which not only dispenses with Microsoft and Windows, but any PC at all.

Microsoft wants the world to believe that in these enlightened days it operates an open Office policy to all comers... sort of.

Slowly but surely, USB 3.0--the next generation of Universal Serial Bus technology--is coming to fruition. USB Implementers Forum chairman Jeff Ravencraft recently noted in a presentation (PDF) that he expects USB 3.0 devices to ship by the middle of next year. This development is going to be important for the whole open source industry to pay attention to, because USB 3.0 is light years beyond previous versions and will usher in unprecedented connectivity and convenience options. The Linux community is going to have to pay special attention.

Adobe Systems is learning the challenges and complexities of taking its software open source.

Just a year and a half after Adobe released its Flex Software Development Kit (SDK) under the Mozilla Public License (MPL) to encourage developer buy in, it's the company - not the community - that continues to shoulder the burden of building and fixing Flex.

Google recently announced that Chrome had been released out of beta, with the 1.0 version having been made available for download for the Windows operating system while support for Linux and Mac OS X is still in the works, according to the Web giant.

I’ve been hearing a lot from open source software vendors about internationalization and more specifically, localization of their software by, logically, local community members and contributors that take the code and run with it in Japanese, Russian, Spanish and a variety of other languages in places all over the globe.

Saving on software licences is one of the main advantages of the use of open source, concludes Cenatic, Spain's resource centre on open source, after studying sixteen implementations of such software by Spanish public administrations.

Top HP software executives said on Tuesday that they believe in the ideas behind cloud computing, but don't like the name of the approach or the "hype" surrounding it.

Top HP software executives said on Tuesday that they believe in the ideas behind cloud computing, but don't like the name of the approach or the "hype" surrounding it.

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GERMANY JOINS GROWING RANKS OF COUNTRIES ADOPTING ODF

DUTCH GOVERNMENT'S INSTRUCTIONS ON USE OF OPEN STANDARDS, ODF PUBLISHED

and lots more

The EU is investing heavily in e-government to help boost growth while delivering on the benefits of the information society, including greater cross-border collaboration, less fragmented research effort, and access to ICT anywhere, any time and by any one. This report examines how ICT is revolutionising the way citizens, businesses and public administrations interact.

There are fast computers, and then there are Linux fast computers. Every six months, the Top 500 organization announces "its ranked list of general purpose systems that are in common use for high end applications." In other words, supercomputers. And, as has been the case for years now, the fastest of the fast are Linux computers.

The Federal Government of Germany announced its decision to implement use of the Open Document Format (ODF) by federal agencies starting in 2010. This news was seen as a welcomed move by the ODF Alliance.

On Tuesday a consortium of technology companies, including IBM (IBM), will launch a new initiative designed to help shield the open-source software community from threats posed by companies or individuals holding dubious software patents and seeking payment for alleged infringements by open-source software products.

Microsoft's announcement of an OOXML plug-in for Firefox is one of those intriguing moments when a tiny piece of the future sprouts through the winter soil.

Cloud computing will fuel growth in open source software as companies try to manage costs, according to database heavyweight Ingres.

Tom Berquist, former managing director of financial powerhouses Citigroup and Goldman Sachs and now CFO of open source database firm Ingres, made the prediction last week.

At yesterdays European Parliament petition hearing both the Commission and the Innovation and Technological Support Directorate (ITEC) within the Parliament gave strong support on the issue of Open Standards and the need to link strategy with practice.

The Petitions Committee will now consider their next steps, including the request from David Hammerstein MEP for an independent legal investigation.

Update: The OpenParliament petition has been granted an examination by the European Parliament petitions committee on 6 November 2008.
We will be given a chance to present our petition and experts Rishab Ghosh (UNU-MERIT) and Peter Strickx (FEDICT, Belgium) will give evidence. The European Parliament's DG for Innovation and Technological Support (ITEC) and the Commission's DIGIT will give statements. In addition, Hugo Lueders of CompTIA has requested time to present an "alternative" standpoint. Members of the European Parliament will then discuss and agree on possible action.

If you are interested in attending, please contact us in order to gain access to the European Parliament building. Thank you for your continued support.

On 27 November, the Telecommunications Ministers presented their conclusions on the September 2008 European Commission document “Future networks and the Internet”, marking the beginning of an important policy debate around the ever increasing economic importance of the sector. Open ForumEurope (OFE) welcomes the Commission initiative and in particular its focus on open standards and open and non-discriminatory access to the Internet. OFE advocates policies that keep the internet open and free from lock-in to specific commercial interests.

Read full text of Press Release

OCI SIG Position - Future Networks and the Internet 2008

According to an article published today in the European Journal of ePractice no.5 (2008), Open Standards are now not only achieving significant momentum in industry and governments in Europe, but also directly contributing to innovation

“Open standards achieve increasing momentum because standard setting actors – companies, governments, and consumers – are shifting from a dogmatic to a pragmatic perspective – from adherence to strict principles, to commitment to a path towards openness.”

Graham Taylor, CEO of Openforum Europe says: “We will continue pushing for these trends to manifest themselves in public procurement. Looking forward, the area of software interoperability, which is best served by open standards, is a topic ripe for framework legislation, due to its ripple effects across the European governance value chain. Currently, it is scattered in dozens of directives, which is not contributing to better regulation”.

Read - Full Text of Press Release

Presentation - The Case for Open Standards - Trond Arne Undheim - Chair - OFE Standardisation Special Interest Group

Read - OFE Onepage Brief No.1 (31.10.08.) - The Importance of Open Standards in Interoperability

Studies Indicate Mass Ignorance of EU Directives

Strasbourg 22 October 2008 - OFE has monitored public procurement notices for computer software published on Tenders Electronic Daily. 136 contact notices were scanned for trademarks in the period from February 1 to April 25, 2008. OFE's monitoring exercise shows that in 34 tender notices out of 136 (25 percent), company brand names were mentioned in procurement documents effectively preventing competition from alternative products. In 17 cases (12.5 percent), tender notices mentioned Microsoft or one of Microsoft’s products.

Graham Taylor, Chief Executive of OFE commented “Frankly we were shocked at the likely extent of the problem. Public authorities not only stand accused of wasting potentially billions by inefficient purchasing, but also locking their users and citizens into today's solutions, and being unable to take advantage of new innovation in the future”

Read - Full text of Press Release

Read - OFE Monitoring Report: Discrimination in Public Procurement Procedures for Computer Software in the EU Member States