Using technical specifications to discriminate ICT solutions continues to be a widespread practice within the EU, says Openforum Europe, advocating the use of open standards in ICT. Publishing the results of its audit of European procurement, OFE yesterday urged for action. "These persisting discriminatory practices are not properly addressed."
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A lawsuit in Germany in which mobile handset maker Samsung is attempting to force its rival Apple to remove the VoiceOver screen reader function from its iPhone smartphones in the country has been halted by the courts.
VoiceOver allows users to have content on the screen read aloud to them. It is marketed as an accessibility aid for blind and visually impaired users, since it can help people use and navigate an iPhone by touch and audio alone.
A Brazilian mobile app that translates Portuguese speech, digital text and photographs of text into sign language, all using an animated avatar, has been recognised at a global apps awards ceremony.
The latest version of a set of guidelines for accessible design in ICT systems, including information on making technology-enabled ‘smart homes’ accessible to disabled and elderly people, has been released by a leading consultant.
By Brenda O’Mulloy.
I have had a fantastic year as Age UK’s Internet Champion of 2012. First there was the honour of winning, followed by the excitement of being broadcast live on BBC radio, speaking at high profile conferences and events and being interviewed by a variety of newspapers and magazines all with the aim of extolling the virtues of using the internet in later life.
The WSIS+10 Review concluded on Wednesday, 27 February with a lively multi-stakeholder debate across a large number of panel sessions. All sessions were asked to produce recommendations to feed into the final UNESCO statement “Information and Knowledge for All an Expanded Vision and a Renewed Commitment”.
The Italian city of Udine has been using open source solutions wherever possible for years. The city's IT department can rely on many local IT service providers. It is also supported by the university, where this type of software development is actively used in teaching and research.
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Public administrations that want to make sure that IT solutions they are procuring can be shared and re-used, can now choose from six standard 'contract clauses'. The clauses are published today by the European Commission's ISA programme (Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations).
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A special session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) took place from 18-22 February 2013 in Geneva to reach consensus on the draft text of an international treaty on copyright limitations and exceptions for visually impaired persons and persons with print disabilitie
The 2nd day of WSIS+10 review meeting at UNESCO HQ in Paris was held on the 26th of February. The very extensive programme included sessions on topics ranging from freedom of expression, mobile learning, to e-business and cultural diversity. The variety of panels gave the oppertunity to learn more about best practices and the work done so far.
Communities of developers of free and open source software can create their own governing laws, using more than just their software licences, say two Irish researchers Ian Ó Maolchraoibhe and Maureen O'Sullivan, from the National University of Ireland, in the city of Galway. The two are currently working on an academic paper, a follow up to the presentation they gave at the Fosdem conference in Brussels earlier this month.
Communities of developers of free and open source software can create their own governing laws, using more than just their software licences, say two Irish researchers Ian Ó Maolchraoibhe and Maureen O'Sullivan, from the National University of Ireland, in the city of Galway. The two are currently working on an academic paper, a follow up to the presentation they gave at the Fosdem conference in Brussels earlier this month.
Estonia's Ministry of Education and Research is funding the development of open source tools for linguistic analysis. It recently published a procurement request for software tools that integrate software and language. The ministry is asking for software that can overcome language barriers, aiming to enable semi automatic and fully automatic machine translation, speech recognition and speech systems.
Learning management systems are slowly becoming a standard teaching tool in the schools in the French speaking part of Belgium, results of a survey show. Claroline and Moodle, two open source e-learning management systems, seem to be the more popular solutions.
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The government of Hungary is creating a resource centre to help the country's public administrations implement free and open source software and open standards. One of the main goals of the centre is to make public administrations aware of the free and open source alternatives to proprietary ICT solutions.
The competence centre, Szabad Szoftver Kompetencia Központ, is to provide continuity, make information available in Hungarian and help public administrations find fixes for any problem they might encounter.
A conference on biometrics, identification microchips and smart cards earlier this month awarded the Smart Open Service for European Patients project. This is one of the EU's Large Scale Pilots. In January, Epsos made available a first completely open source reference implementation. The software is hosted on Joinup.
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More and more of the CPDWL as well as the IFLA communication is moving into social media. Rember to follow us on our Blog and Facebook!
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Open standards and the compatibility of data and IT systems are two of the core themes of a network of municipalities, founded last week Thursday. The new organisation is called Linked Organisation of Local Authority ICT Societies (LOLA). It is the international version of national networks of local administrations in Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands and Belgium.
