[p2p-research] Fwd: Request for Open Standards in EC Projects

[Michel Bauwens]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Wouter Tebbens <wouter at freeknowledge.eu>
Date: Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 6:22 PM
Subject: Request for Open Standards in EC Projects
To: Discussion list of the FKI <discussion at freeknowledge.eu>



Dear all,

as some of you know we are very much concerned about the European Commission
using and requiring the use of proprietary document formats within their
projects.

Many EU Member States have in recent years adopted government policies to
require Open Standard file formats, such as the Open Document Format (ODF),
PDF, etc. And in fact, the EC agency for interoperability and eGovernment,
IDABC, does strongly recommend the use of ODF and Open Standards in general.

As we have seen in R&D FrameWork projects, and especially in the Lifelong
Learning Programme, Excel spreadsheets and .doc documents are still the
formats required for communicating between the EC and the projects they
fund. They do not only force other organisations to purchase that specific
software, but they give a completely wrong example of how in Europe we want
to give shape to the Knowledge Society.

Therefore the idea was born to write a letter requesting the EC
representatives of funding agencies like the Lifelong Learning Programme
(LLP) to adhere to existing policies for the use of Open Standards.

We had this idea initially in the Free Knowledge Institute and in the Free
Technology Academy Consortium. And then we found out that many project
coordinators and European organisations share this concern with us. So why
not write such a letter together and join our effort in presenting it to the
various EC representatives.

In the FKI wiki I made a start of such letter, in this case to the LLP, but
that we can later use for other EC bodies. see here: [1]

Please comment on the text, improve it, comment on the possible contacts we
should send it to and whether you are willing to undersign the letter.

If you find this effort interesting, most practical would be to just join
the FKI's general discussion list at [2] and subscribe to the wiki at [3].

Best regards,

   Wouter Tebbens
   Free Knowledge Institute

References:
[1] http://freeknowledge.eu/wiki/index.php/OpenStandardsLetter
[2] http://mail.freeknowledge.eu/mailman/listinfo/discussion
[3]
http://freeknowledge.eu/wiki/index.php?title=Special:Userlogin&returnto=OpenStandardsLetter



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