Hi,
1. First a small introduction to Europe Information Society Fund (IST):
IST 2004 will address European policies, strategies and research activities in all areas of the Information Society.
There is a IST conference at 15-17 November 2004 in The Hague, Netherlands this is sort of a kick off meeting.
What i know of, Call 4 and Call 5 have a funding volume of 1900 Million Euro, probably ALL European based information technology funding is bundled in this IST program.
IST goals: http://europa.eu.int/information_society/research/index_en.htm
The Hague IST conference details: http://europa.eu.int/information_society/istevent/2004/index_en.htm
2. Who can get funding?
Research institutes get up to 100% sponsoring, companies get up to 50%, free software gets 0%
We have started a homepage, forum and Wiki page to changes this! See http://ospro.sf.net
One small example:
The economical impact of free/open software on economy goes to billions of Euro. The efficiency (financial input versus powerful output) of free software is very high compared to many projects of research institutions or company projects.
Imagine how 5 % of the IST fund (95 Million Euro) could empower the European free/open source community: Many man years of efficient free software development.
3. Current state
We have started a session #513 on the IST The Hague event, to change the habit of IST to not sponsor free/open source directly (or for example via organizations like fseurope.org). See:
http://europa.eu.int/information_society/istevent/2004/cf/viewevent.cfm?even...
http://europa.eu.int/information_society/istevent/2004/cf/vieweventdetail.cf...
As you can see at the first link, session #513 has disappeared, there is a gap between #512 and #514!
!!! It was censored by IST !!!
But - with the second link you can circumvent the censorship and view the original session :-)
4. What can you do?
a) Subscribe to the censored session #513 with the above link!
Any active or passive subscription helps us to force IST to take back the censorship.
Please subscribe now!
The IST money is public money, our money!
b) Discuss your opinion on Wiki at http://ospro.sf.net
Thanks and see you in The Hague,
Marcel Ruff Phone: 07551 309371