Re: Video Neelie Kroes

[William from Texas <williamfromtexas gmail com>]

Ok, chaps, here's a last chance to look at this press release before I post it to the website! I give it about 12 hours until I post it tomorrow afternoon. 

Feedback welcome!!

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Tuesday July 13, 2010

GUADEC conference draws Open Source support from EU Commissioner

European Union (EU) Commissioner for Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes has released a video statement emphasising the importance of Open Source Software (OSS) in Europe and the need to foster a growing open source community. The video came in response to an invitation by the GNOME Users and Developers European Conference (GUADEC). Unable to speak, Kroes instead record her statement strongly supporting OSS and its work across European sectors.

Commissioner Kroes explained that OSS was in everyones best interests. Proprietary software, said Kroes, "discourages [government] officials from selecting software on merit." Many governments, such as in France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and the UK, are already using or testing OSS, and the benefits are "not only good value for money ... but also more choice." 

Aside from the national-level, European-level commitment and preparedness for OSS has sent promising signals, showing that in Europe, the work of shaping our digital future should be done by us: the people and the communities. Tools for public use include: the Open Software Observatory and Repository (OSOR) database, a platform to develop, collaborate and share software and best practices between public administrations; the European Union Public License (EUPL), a "copy left" style software license; and the European Interoperability Framework, a policy instrument that aims at interoperability in and between public administrations. 

GUADEC is an annual conference which focuses on development of the GNOME desktop. Begun in 1998, GUADEC has been hosted in various locations around Europe. The 2010 conference will be in The Hague, The Netherlands, at the end of July.

GNOME is used as the default graphic user environment in many major Linux and Unix systems. With the tenets of promoting freedom, accessability and usability, GNOME is well positioned to play a key role in future OSS projects. 

The GNOME desktop is used by millions of people around the world. GNOME is a standard part of all leading GNU/Linux and Unix distributions, and is popular with both large existing corporate deployments and millions of small business and home users worldwide.

Composed of hundreds of volunteer developers and industry-leading companies, the GNOME Foundation is an organization committed to supporting the advancement of GNOME. The foundation is a member directed, non-profit organisation that provides financial, organisational and legal support to the GNOME project and helps determine its vision and roadmap.

The video is very relevant to the conference. The GNOME Open Desktop Day, a pre-conference to the main event, is specifically focused on the role that OSS can play with government and education. The Open Desktop Day will host a panel of speakers to discuss OSS's role in the public domain.

Commissioner Kroes is a well-known digital advocate. As one of the leads opposing proprietary technology, Kroes has used her role to pursue Microsoft towards greater interoperability of the Windows platform. In her role as Commissioner for Digital Agenda, she continues to stand up for open digital innovation.

As Kroes says, government "can bring people together, help get rid of obstacles, and occasionally give funding to help in research and development. But the real difference is made by people and communities, like the open source movement."

The full video is on the GUADEC website:
www.guadec.org

The video can also be found on Youtube
www.youtube.com

More information about GUADEC, GNOME and the GNOME Foundation can be found at www.guadec.org, www.gnome.org and foundation.gnome.org.
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