[for immediate release]
Welcome to life after ICT lock-in
Certified Open trial period launched
Today sees the launch of the trial period for Certified Open, a
programme to evaluate the technical and commercial lock-in of ICT
solutions. Certified Open promotes fair and effective competition in
the delivery of software, hardware and services.
Certified Open is a joint venture between OpenForum Europe (OFE) and
Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE). The programme originated in UK
local government and European Commission eTen projects and was further
developed with industry, community and user engagement.
The certification process is simple and fast. It is based on
self-assessment and uses an on-line application process. The programme
tests technical and commercial aspects of interoperability and awards
Gold, Silver or Bronze certificates to successful applicants.
Accreditations and answers to certification questions are listed on-line
for public review to ensure fairness. There is a neutral appeal process
to resolve irregularities and a governance council to oversee
development and forward planning.
Graham Taylor, Director of OpenForum Europe said: "Certified Open
represents a complete solution for public and private sector users to
check the openness of their ICT solutions. We frequently see examples
where organisations have become locked-in to a system due to the costs
involved in change. Analysis carried out by OFE has indicated that 90%
of public sector organisations no longer have the freedom to choose ICT
solutions on the basis of competitiveness, functionality or price
because of lock-in."
Certified Open is designed to ensure freedom from lock-in and openness
to fair competition. The framework assesses dependence on proprietary or
undocumented protocols, dependence on undocumented or proprietary data
formats, licensing terms that preclude the use of alternative products,
extensions to standards to ensure good performance and the use of
pseudo-standards dependent on patents or other restrictions that prevent
compatible competing implementations."
Georg Greve, President of the Free Software Foundation Europe stated:
"Vendor lock-in has become the primary problem for IT decisions in
general and Free Software adoption in particular. It distorts the market
and denies Free Software solutions equal competition on the merits. The
problem has been that many lock-ins are invisible, for example reliance
on proprietary protocols or needing to use certain document
formats. Certified Open makes that lock-in visible and allows users to
measure their dependency. Suppliers can highlight clearly when their
products are interoperable, and we hope that Certified Open will provide
an incentive to ensure that they are. Our goal is to give back freedom
of choice to all users."
NOTES FOR EDITORS
For more information please contact Graham Taylor on + 44 771 359 3217
or Jennifer Webber + 44 7908 643 983.
1. Graham Taylor is speaking at the Open Source Summit, hosted by
Olswang and Greenberg Traurig and held at the Queen Elizabeth II
Centre today at 1630. Graham will be available for comment via
Jennifer Webber on +44 7908 643 093.
2. Certified Open is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee in
the UK. There is no equity or profit to distribute and any surpluses
generated will be returned to the development of Certified Open. It
is intended that this is the first step towards the establishment of
a Foundation. The Board of Certified Open Limited currently consists
of four directors, two from each of the founding organisations -
OpenForum Europe and Free Software Foundation Europe. Certified Open
was originally developed with support of the UK Government's
eInnovations programme, and the eTEN programme of the European
Commission. It has already been extensively trialled with support
from the community, industry and user organisations.
3. The Certified Open programme has a 3 Month Trial period running
until end January 2008. During this period all accreditations will
be free of charge and submissions will remain confidential. The
trial can be accessed at www.certifiedopen.com.
4. OpenForum Europe is a not-for-profit, independent organisation
launched in March 2002 to accelerate, broaden and strengthen the use
of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in business and government.
OFE pursues the vision of an open, competitive European IT market by
2010 in line with the European Commission i2010 Strategy, with the
mission of facilitating open competitive choice for IT users
5. Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in global activities. FSFE is dedicated to Free Software,
software that can be used, studied, shared and improved by its
users. FSFE was founded in 2001 to create awareness for Free
Software, secure Free Software politically and legally, and give
people Freedom by supporting development of Free Software. FSFE
wishes to secure equal participation in the information age and
freedom of competition.
Contact: Joachim Jakobs, Media Relations
Email: jakobs(a)fsfeurope.org
Tel: +49 700 373387673 Ext: 404
Mobile: +49 179 6919565
Welcome to FSFE's October newsletter. This month, issues of
interoperability, sustainable ICT and Free Software in education
have been receiving attention. There are also changes inside FSFE,
with the Fellowship reviewing its infrastructure and long-term
projects like the FTF European Legal and Technical networks continuing
to expand. Exciting times indeed.
You may notice that the newsletter has a slightly different format
this month. We would appreciate any feedback or comments you have.
They can be sent directly to coughlan(a)fsfeurope.org.
- Shane, FSFE Zurich Office
1. European Commission vs. Microsoft decennial battle is over
2. FSFE at Free Software information event in Austrian school
3. FSFE's German deputy coordinator discusses Sustainable-IT in Berlin
4. Sun donates T1000 server to FSFE
5. Fellows plan the future of the Fellowship portal
6. FSFE's European Legal and Techincal Networks grow
7. Brussels meetings and Free Software awareness
Forthcoming events:
8. Strategic implementation of Free Software, Stockholm, Sweden
1. European Commission vs. Microsoft decennial battle is over
The European Commission and Microsoft have agreed that Microsoft is
finally in compliance with the obligations contained in the 2004
Commission ruling against the Seattle company. The Commission had
ruled that Microsoft distorted the market by failing to provide
interoperability information for their products. Microsoft
subsequently appealed against the Commission's decision and lost
at the European Court of First Instance. Part of the ruling requires
reasonable and non discriminatory terms for interoperability
information and related patents. One reason for this was the
intention to enable Free Software projects like Samba to access
the information, and our legal experts are currently assessing
whether the agreed conditions meet these requirements. What is
certain is that Microsoft will not appeal against the judgment of
the Court of First Instance, which has become final and definitive.
Please visit fsfeurope.org for updates.
http://www.fsfeurope.org/
2. FSFE at Free Software information event in Austrian school
As reported in an earlier newsletter, the "BG Rechte Kremszeile" public
school in Austria has switched to Free Software. Recently the school
organised an event to report their experience with the switch. Three
speakers from the FSFE and the Vienna Fellowship group were invited to
talk about the general concepts of Free Software. A number of teachers
and decision-makers from other schools attended the event and showed
interest in the adoption of free solutions for their own schools.
https://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2007q3/000181.html
3. FSFE's German deputy coordinator discusses Sustainable-IT in Berlin, Germany
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE's German deputy coordinator, took take part in
a panel discussion at the Sustainable-IT conference on the 18th of
October. The topic was "IT sustainability -- international. How can
software contribute to resource protection and a fair distribution of
knowledge."
http://www.sustainable-it.org/
4. Sun donates T1000 server to FSFE
Sun has donated a T1000 server to FSFE's Fellowship. "The work that
the Free Software Foundation Europe undertakes is important for all of
us. Sun is honoured to have donated a Sun Fire(TM) T1000 server, based
on the GPL licensed OpenSPARC(TM) chip, to power the FSFE Fellowship
site," said Simon Phipps, Chief Open Source Officer, Sun Microsystems,
Inc. Thanks to this new hardware FSFE is able to refocus the
Fellowship's on-line presence and provide new services to all our
supporters.
http://www.fsfe.org/supporters/
5. Fellows plan the future of the Fellowship portal
The Fellows of FSFE are discussing the future of the Fellowship portal.
Since 2005, the fsfe.org portal has sought to provide tools for Fellows
to communicate and collaborate. The current discussion is about what
services are most important to the Fellows today and what tools would
be useful for the future. The discussion is covering the use of
forums, calenders, mailing lists and other services. You can add your
view by joining the list:
https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion
6. FSFE's European Legal and Techincal Networks grow
FSFE's Freedom Task Force has been busy building pan-European legal
and technical networks. The goal is to strengthen the legal
foundation of Free Software through building connections between
professionals and researchers active on the continent. The networks
now have 45 legal experts and 25 technical specialists, and contain
contacts in Canada, the USA, Singapore and Taiwan. To learn more
visit the website:
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/network.html
7. Brussels meetings and Free Software awareness
Ciaran O'Riordan has been busy in Brussels. Along with the usual meetings
about ODF, O'Riordan has been to Helsinki and Florence to talk about GPLv3
and has been writing about this in his blog.
http://fsfe.org/en/fellows/ciaran/ciaran_s_free_software_notes
Forthcoming events:
8. Strategic implementation of Free Software, Stockholm, Sweden
On the 8th of November, the FSFE and its Freedom Task Force (FTF), in
collaboration with the Internet Academy in Sweden, will give a course
on Strategic implementation of Free Software in businesses. The course
will take place in Stockholm, Sweden and given predominantly in Swedish.
http://www.internetacademy.se/strategi.html
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
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