As the FFII (Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure) announced today, last week the Business Software Alliance (BSA) lobby group got hold of confidential pre-release drafts of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) 2.0. While the public is denied such important informations, business lobby groups put pressure on EU commissioners in order to hold back “open standards” policies.
Out of an e-mail by the FFII to signees of an open standards petition:
The FFII calls on European policy makers to consider the Hague
Declaration principles [2] and preserve a true definition of open
standards for their egovernment services. It is our genuine right to communicate as citizens with our administration, and to do so without technological discrimination and without patent toll gates. Let us defend the openness of Europe!
Stays to mention that Europe is not at all open yet, and therefore, beyond this important challenge, addressed by the FFII, we will have to add a claim for policies of open movement and living in and beyond Europe. Besides abolishing borders in the end: Let us fight for the openness of borders!
Some resources:
- The Hague Declaration, mentioned in the FFII quote above
- The FFII Workgroup on Open Standards
