Standardisation organisation Oasis has started working on document standard for legal documents, it announced on 13 February. Oasis aims to approve Akoma Ntoso, 'a machine readable set of simple technology-neutral electronic representations of parliamentary, legislative and judiciary documents'.

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Standardisation organisation Oasis has started working on document standard for legal documents, it announced on 13 February. Oasis aims to approve Akoma Ntoso, 'a machine readable set of simple technology-neutral electronic representations of parliamentary, legislative and judiciary documents'.

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Standardisation organisation Oasis has started working on document standard for legal documents, it announced on 13 February. Oasis aims to approve Akoma Ntoso, 'a machine readable set of simple technology-neutral electronic representations of parliamentary, legislative and judiciary documents'.

read more

The recognition by the state of Berlin of The Document Foundation will be a boost to the use by public administrations of LibreOffice, a free and open source suite of office productivity tools, expects Florian Effenberger, chairman of the new foundation.

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The recognition by the state of Berlin of The Document Foundation will be a boost to the use by public administrations of LibreOffice, a free and open source suite of office productivity tools, expects Florian Effenberger, chairman of the new foundation.

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The recognition by the state of Berlin of The Document Foundation will be a boost to the use by public administrations of LibreOffice, a free and open source suite of office productivity tools, expects Florian Effenberger, chairman of the new foundation.

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The recognition by the state of Berlin of The Document Foundation will be a boost to the use by public administrations of LibreOffice, a free and open source suite of office productivity tools, expects Florian Effenberger, chairman of the new foundation.

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In a ruling of 30 September 2011, the Council of State, France's highest administrative court, clarified the right of contracting authorities to require suppliers to use specific open source software in the context of public procurement.

In the case in point, a regional authority had launched a call for tenders for the "awarding of a service provision contract for the implementation, exploitation, maintenance and hosting of a service platform for an open source digital working environment - named Lilie - aimed at secondary schools".

In a ruling of 30 September 2011, the Council of State, France's highest administrative court, clarified the right of contracting authorities to require suppliers to use specific open source software in the context of public procurement.

In a ruling of 30 September 2011, the Council of State, France's highest administrative court, clarified the right of contracting authorities to require suppliers to use specific open source software in the context of public procurement.

In the case in point, a regional authority had launched a call for tenders for the "awarding of a service provision contract for the implementation, exploitation, maintenance and hosting of a service platform for an open source digital working environment - named Lilie - aimed at secondary schools".

The Romanian ministry of Internal Affairs (MAI) says that internal and European interoperability requirements are forcing it to ban the use of open source software in the building of a system to manage criminal records.

The Romanian ministry of Internal Affairs (MAI) says that internal and European interoperability requirements are forcing it to ban the use of open source software in the building of a system to manage criminal records.

The explicit ban of software available under an open source licence is one of the requirements made by the ministry in the tender published on 2 July. MAI is requesting an 'Information System of Romanian Criminal Records (Rocris)', for a budget of 12 million Rom (about 2.85 million euro).

The Romanian ministry of Internal Affairs (MAI) says that internal and European interoperability requirements are forcing it to ban the use of open source software in the building of a system to manage criminal records.

The explicit ban of software available under an open source licence is one of the requirements made by the ministry in the tender published on 2 July. MAI is requesting an 'Information System of Romanian Criminal Records (Rocris)', for a budget of 12 million Rom (about 2.85 million euro).

Public administrations in the EU facing resistance to their publishing of software as open source, are likely supported by a European Law, the 'Directive on the re-use of public sector information'. The PSI-directive, part of member states' national laws since 2005, obliges public administrations to avoid discrimination between market players, when making information available for re-use. Making source code available as open source is one way to avoid favouritism.

Public administrations in the EU facing resistance to their publishing of software as open source, are likely supported by a European Law, the 'Directive on the re-use of public sector information'. The PSI-directive, part of member states' national laws since 2005, obliges public administrations to avoid discrimination between market players, when making information available for re-use. Making source code available as open source is one way to avoid favouritism.