[A2k] New petition calls for open standards in the European Parliament

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
++ New petition calls for open standards in the European Parliament

http://www.openforumeurope.org/press-room/latest-news/new-petition-calls-fo=
r-open-standards-in-the-european-parliament

The petition can be found here: www.openparliament.eu

Brussels =96 6 March 2008.
At a time when the EU Commission investigates the anti-competitive
behaviour of a market-dominant player, the European Parliament (EP)
still imposes that same specific software choice on both the European
Union's citizens and its own MEPs.  OpenForum Europe, The European
Software Market Association, and the Free Software Foundation Europe
today launched a petition to call on the EP to use open standards so
that all citizens can participate in the democratic process.

Graham Taylor, Chief Executive of OpenForum Europe says: "The benefits
of the Internet were achieved from open standards, freedom of access,
participation for all, innovation where it really mattered.  Not
proprietary lock-in and monopoly.  Government and Parliament need to
show leadership in ensuring full participation for all its citizens.

Pieter Hintjens, General Secretary of Esoma explains, "Small
businesses are moving to modern open standards like Open Document
Format, yet to write to their MEPs they have to switch back to old
proprietary formats?  The EP should lead the way in open government,
starting with open standards for documents and recordings."

Ciaran O=92Riordan, FSFE adds, "If our elected representatives don't
like a software package or its terms of use, they should be able to
choose another software package.  This issue and the promotion of open
standards must be tackled together to get past a chicken and egg
problem: Not being able to choose your software often means you're
stuck with one vendor's proprietary format, and using that proprietary
format means you, and everyone you communicate with, is shoe-horned
into using the same vendor's software.  For FSFE, it is important that
MEPs be able to choose Free Software."

The signatories are encouraging citizens and other stakeholder groups
to publicly support the objectives of the petition by signing up on www.ope=
nparliament.eu




++ Background

It is the right of all citizens to be able to freely communicate with
their elected representatives, and have full and free access to the
proceedings of Parliament. In today=92s electronic world of the
internet, email and video streaming, citizens rightly have high
expectations on the European Parliament to ensure full participation
without technical restriction.

Yet it is a fact that the domination of current suppliers, unless
challenged, does impose unnecessary restriction, forcing citizens to
purchase specific software, maintaining lock-in to that supplier and
limiting competition and choice.

Openness is all about the freedom to innovate, integrate and
participate. For example there are already internationally approved
standards for document exchange, supported by a multitude of
competitive main stream products - yet these standards are unsupported
by the European Parliament, which instead only supports products based
on proprietary protocols. Not only does this potentially increase
cost, restrict access and impact social inclusion, but it restricts
the opportunity to take advantage of new innovation offered by
tomorrow's technology.

The co-signatories of this Petition call on the European Parliament to
open up their IT systems, maximising the use of open standards and
ensure full democracy for its citizens.

  ENDS

Issued by Open Forum Europe through Chelgate Ltd.



Notes to editors:

OpenForum Europe (OFE), is not-for-profit, independent of any
organisation and was launched in March 2002 to accelerate, broaden and
strengthen the use of Open Source Software 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. OFE is
supported by major IT suppliers and works closely with the market,
both direct and via national associates and partners. www.openforumeurope.o=
rg

The European Software Market Association (Esoma) is the voice of the
independent IT firms, professionals, and consumers. Founded in January
2007 by the FFII, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the removal
of barriers to competition in IT and largely responsible for the
rejection of the EU software patent directive in July 2005, Esoma
promotes healthy practices on the software market. Esoma fills the gap
for a European trade association speaking specifically for SME IT
firms.As a not-for-profit organisation, it is mostly funded from
membership fees and donations.www.esoma.org

The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit non-
governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation in
the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the
furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study,
modify and copy. Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these issues,
securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving people
Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are central issues
of the FSFE.

For further information please contact: Graham Taylor, Chief Executive
of OFE, +44(0)1372 815168; Pieter Hintjens, General Secretary of
ESOMA, +32 (0)475 235 984; Ciaran O=92Riordan, FSFE, +32(0)477 364 419


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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
thiru@keionline.org


Tel: +41 22 791 6727
Mobile: +41 76 508 0997