Issue no. 390 - 20 July 2008

• OECD releases new recommendations on PSI (Open Access News)
  The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development released a new Recommendation of the Council for Enhanced Access and More Effective Use of Public Sector Information at its recent Ministerial Meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy (Seoul, June 17-18, 2008).

Issue no. 389 - 22 June 2008

• EU - Public Sector Information - On-line Consultation for review of the PSI Directive (Europa)
  The purpose of this online consultation is to gather information from as many sources as possible, including public sector content holders and commercial and non-commercial re-users (universities, NGOs) on their views on different aspects related to the implementation, impact and scope of the PSI Directive. The results of the online consultation will feed into the debate regarding the review of the PSI Directive. We are inviting interested parties to send us comments, suggestions and replies to the enclosed questionnaire by 31st July 2008 at the latest. More information(PDF).

Issue no. 388 - 1 June 2008

• EU - Electronic Identity: easy access to public services across the EU (RAPID)
  The European Commission unveils a pilot project to ensure cross-border recognition of national electronic identity (eID) systems and enable easy access to public services in 13 Member States. Throughout the EU, some 30 million national eID cards are used by citizens to access a variety of public services such as claiming social security and unemployment benefits or filing tax returns. The Commission's project will enable EU citizens to prove their identity and use national electronic identity systems (passwords, ID cards, PIN codes and others) throughout the EU, not just in their home country. The plan is to align and link these systems without replacing existing ones.

• EU - European Criminal Records Information System (RAPID)
  The Commission has adopted a proposal for a Council Decision on the establishment of the European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS). The proposal aims at giving concrete tools to all 27 Member States for the exchange of easy-to-use information between Member States with different criminal legal systems, different languages, as well as different alphabets. ECRIS is a system based on decentralised information technology architecture, where criminal records data will be stored solely in databases operated by Member States. The system aims at making sure that the recipient receives information in a form which is immediately understandable.

• EU - Towards a European strategy on e-Justice (RAPID)
  The Commission has adopted a Communication to the European Parliament, Council and the EESC presenting ideas for the use of Information Society tools in the field of justice. The Communication deals with current and future initiatives which will help promote the European Justice Area. The objectives of e-Justice, which encompass both criminal and civil justice, are: The creation of a European portal designed to facilitate access to justice by citizens and businesses across Europe, and the reinforcement of judicial co-operation, on the basis of existing legal instruments. See also Questions and answers on the adoption of the e-Justice Communication.

• FR - Les gendarmes lancent leur premier appel à témoins sur Internet (01net)
  La gendarmerie nationale met en ligne un site consacré à une affaire criminelle, afin de recueillir de nouveaux témoignages ou indices. Une première en France alors que cette pratique a déjà cours à l'étranger, en Allemagne par exemple. L'opération a reçu l'aval du juge d'instruction chargé de l'enquête, et le ministère de la Justice finance l'opération.

• US - Internet key to Obama victories (BBC)
  With Barack Obama moving close to victory in the Democratic presidential primary campaign, the internet has proved one of the key tools to his success. And it may well give the Democrats a big advantage during the Presidential race itself. The internet favours the outsider, and gives them the ability to quickly mobilise supporters and money online. The more nimble use of the internet by the Obama campaign in its early stages helped him overcome the huge initial lead of Hillary Clinton in the presidential nominating race.

Issue no. 384 - 24 February 2008

• FR - Le ministère de l'Intérieur boucle son système de dépôt de plainte par internet (ZDNet France)
  Le système de dépôt de plainte par internet permettra à une victime de faire une déposition en ligne, qu´elle devra ensuite aller confirmer au commissariat ou à la gendarmerie. Le service ne gèrera, dans un premier temps, que les plaintes contre X pour des affaires mineures. Le ministère de l'Intérieur ne veut pas être accusé de mettre en place un système de délation en ligne ; il a donc prévu la parade : la victime souhaitant déposer plainte devra s'identifier, en donnant notamment son numéro de carte d'identité nationale. Cette fiche sera ensuite transmise électroniquement au commissariat le plus proche. La victime y sera convoquée pour confirmer ses dires, puis valider complètement la plainte.

Issue no. 382 - 6 January 2008

• UK - Queen launches YouTube channel (BBC)
  The Queen has launched her own channel on the video-sharing website YouTube. The Royal Channel will feature her Christmas Day message, and has recent and historical footage of the monarch and other members of the Royal Family. The launch marks the 50th anniversary of the Queen's first televised festive address in 1957.

• Wiki-Government (Democracy: A Journal of Ideas)
  by Beth Simone Noveck. How open-source technology can make government decision-making more expert and more democratic. The article argues that ordinary people possess extraordinary expertise that can improve the quality of government decision making; it also describes how democratic institutions can be reshaped.

Issue no. 381 - 8 December 2007

• UK - SatLav text service finds nearest loo (vnunet.com)
  Westminster City Council has launched an SMS service to inform users of the nearest public toilet. Users text 'toilet' to 80097 and the service determines their location and automatically finds the nearest public toilet. The 'SatLav' system charges 25p for each text.

Issue no. 380 - 30 September 2007

• NZ police let public write laws (BBC)
  New Zealanders have been given the chance to write their own laws, with a new online tool launched by police. The "wiki" will allow the public to suggest the wording of a new police act, as part of a government review of the current law, written in 1958. Police say they hope to gain a range of views from the public on the new law before presenting it to parliament. The wiki, one of the first of its kind in the world, is open to any internet user, police say.

Issue no. 379 - 2 September 2007

• UK - Study: Tech for tracking offenders is flawed (Kablenet.com)
  A study commissioned by the Ministry of Justice has revealed that the signal for satellite technology for tracking offenders could be lost and that offenders could remove their ankle tags and leave them behind. The report says that, in ideal conditions, the technology is capable of finding the exact location of a tracked offender. But the signal could be distorted if an offender enters a building or a street with tall structures.

Issue no. 378 - 5 August 2007

• UK - Halt e-voting, says Electoral Commission (ZDNet UK)
  Trials of electronic voting and vote-counting should be halted until the government can come up with a good reason for using the technology, the Electoral Commission has said. E-voting has been undergoing a series of trials in local elections across the UK, but the Electoral Commission, in a report, said that no further trials were necessary for the moment. The Electoral Commission suggested that the security of e-voting systems needed to be beefed up in any future implementations, and reiterated its support for a system of individual voter registration as a prerequisite to further trials.

Issue no. 377 - 5 July 2007

• EU - Steamy YouTube Clip Riles Lawmakers (AP)
  The European Commission has posted a montage of sex scenes from European films on a video-sharing Web site, drawing criticism from some lawmakers who described it as "soft porn". The Commission launched its own channel on YouTube last week called EUTube, saying it wanted to spread messages about topics such as climate change and human rights. Commission spokesman Martin Selmayr said the sex scene clips - drawn from award-winning films such as "Amelie" and "Bad Education" - highlighted Europe's tradition of rich cinema.

• EU Tube - Sharing the sights and sounds of Europe on YouTube (RAPID)
  The European Commission has launched a dedicated channel on YouTube to make its audiovisual material more widely available to the public. "This initiative reflects the Commission's commitment to better explain its policies and actions on issues which concern citizens across the EU - such as climate change, energy or immigration" said Margot Wallström, Vice-President for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy.

• UK - Electronic vote 'threat' to UK democracy (BBC)
  British democracy could be undermined by moves to use electronic voting in elections: the risks involved in swapping paper ballots for touch screens far outweigh any benefits they may have, says the Open Rights Group report.

Issue no. 376 - 10 June 2007

• UK - Bank claims deluge legal service (BBC)
  The government's Money Claim Online small claims service (MCOL) is being overwhelmed by claims for bank charges. So many people are using the website to reclaim overdraft charges that at times it has slowed almost to a standstill.

• UK - Call to open up public data use (BBC)
  Government must do more to embrace Web 2.0 tools and communities, says a report. Commissioned by the Cabinet Office, the report looks at the novel ways the web helps people use information and how government can get involved. The report said that some public data, such as post codes, was already widely used but much more could be done to open up access to official information.

• UK - 'What is a Web site?' judge says he's fully computer literate (Reuters)
  A British judge who said he didn't really understand the term "Web site" is fully computer literate and was merely trying to clarify complex evidence for the benefit of the court, the judiciary said. The remark by Judge Peter Openshaw during a trial on Wednesday made headlines around the world. "The trouble is I don't understand the language. I don't really understand what a Web site is," he told a London court during the trial of three men accused of inciting terrorism via the Internet. In a statement, the Judicial Communications Office did not dispute that Openshaw had been accurately quoted. But it said the remark by the judge, now in his fifth week presiding over the trial, had been taken out of context.

• UK / FR - Tony Blair félicite Nicolas Sarkozy de sa victoire (YouTube)
  Tony Blair félicite Nicolas Sarkozy de sa victoire aux éléctions françaises (en français). See also PM congratulates Sarkozy on French election win.

• US - Army to block YouTube, MySpace on DoD network (The Register)
  The US forces will "block worldwide access," to a range of websites including YouTube, MySpace and Photobucket from the unclassified Defense Department internet. General BB Bell announced the upcoming blocks. He suggested that the changes were as much to preserve bandwidth as to muzzle critical comment and news-media access. "Recreational traffic impacts our official DoD network and bandwidth availability," he wrote.

Issue no. 375 - 9 May 2007

• UK - Blair launches YouTube 'channel' (BBC)
  Tony Blair has launched a Labour Party 'channel' on the YouTube website to communicate directly with voters. In a minute-long video on the channel the prime minister says the website will enable voters to receive 'unmediated' information. The channel also carries messages from Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain and Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt. Last year Tory leader David Cameron launched his own video weblog to try to get his message to young people.

Issue no. 373 - 11 March 2007

• EU - The political challenge of simplifying and opening up eGovernment (Europa)
  Speech by Viviane Reding, Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media, International conference "Advancing eGovernment", Berlin, 1 March 2007.

Issue no. 371 - 28 January 2007

• EU - Commission takes 5 countries to Court of Justice for failure on EU rules to re-use public information (RAPID)
  The European Commission is taking five Member States to the European Court of Justice for a failing to put into practice the Directive on the re-use of public sector information (PSI). Member States should have notified the Commission of measures to put into practice the PSI Directive by 1 July 2005. Up to now, Austria, Belgium, Portugal, Spain and Luxembourg have failed to do so.

• UK - Government looks at data shake-up (BBC)
  The way the UK government makes its vast amounts of data available to the public could be about to change. It has decided to make access to a database of UK laws completely free for the public to access and re-use.

• UK - Government to close 551 websites (BBC)
  Hundreds of UK government websites are to be shut down "to make access to information easier" for people. Of 951 sites, only 26 will definitely stay, 551 will definitely close and hundreds more are expected to follow.

Issue no. 369 - 5 November 2006

• UK - Government plans could block release of controversial information (out-law;com)
  Changes planned to the rules surrounding Freedom of Information legislation will prevent the most controversial information from being made public, according to legal and political experts. The media is likely to be hardest hit by proposed changes, they said.

• US - Diebold slams HBO Hacking Democracy documentary (The Register)
  A campaign by Diebold to torpedo a TV documentary investigating its controversial e-voting machines looks set to backfire. Byrd cites "egregious" errors and misrepresentations, while Albrecht alleges some kind of pinko-liberal-Hollwood conspiracy against Diebold. It seems to be common practice for machines to record votes for Democrats as Republican while machines have also been hacked under tested conditions. Diebold has always maintained its machines are tested and secure.

• US - Does e-voting need paper trails? (CNET News)
  Fears of glitches and foul play on computerized voting machines have prompted widespread calls for paper receipts. After reports of a rocky primary election this year, Maryland's Republican governor called for a return to all-paper ballots.

Issue no. 368 - 15 October 2006

• EU - European voting machines flawed, easily manipulated (INQUIRER newsdesk)
  Vo used in Europe look like they may be as dodgy as those that have caused such a rumpus on the far side of the Pond. A paper published on a Web site named, "Wij vertrouwen stemcomputers niet" (translation: We don't trust voting machines) details a bunch of flaws researchers claim to uncovered in machines used in Holland Germany and France.

Issue no. 367 - 23 September 2006

• CN - Justice at the click of a mouse in China (Reuters)
  A court in China has used a software program to help decide prison sentences in more than 1,500 criminal cases. The software, tested for two years in a court in Zibo, a city in the eastern coastal province of Shandong, covered about 100 different crimes, including robbery, rape, murder and state security offenses.

Issue no. 366 - 3 September 2006

• UK - Access denied to the laws that govern us (Guardian)
  On August 2, the government rolled out the second stage of a long-delayed project to make the consolidated law of parliament accessible to the people. So how does it look? The public - who paid for the whole project - can't get a look in.

• UK - Environment minister scraps Web experiment as users deface Internet pages (Associated Press)
  Britain's government abruptly ended an Internet experiment as a Web site requesting ideas for environmental policies was bombarded with abuse and ridicule. Environment Secretary David Miliband had hoped the public would contribute ideas for a draft paper setting out key ecological responsibilities for individuals, government and businesses. But his Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs withdrew Web pages after contributors instead parodied the minister's jargon-heavy speaking style and criticized Prime Minister Tony Blair's faltering record.

• US - Sober warnings about e-voting systems (CNET News)
  In the wake of the hanging-and-dimpled-chads debacle of the 2000 presidential election, there has been a move to embrace electronic voting systems. The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University recently released a report analyzing the security vulnerabilities of three of the most commonly used electronic voting systems. The results are sobering. All three voting systems were found to contain significant security and reliability vulnerabilities.

Issue no. 364 - 7 July 2006

• EU - e-Government survey (RAPID)
  The maturity of online public services in the EU keeps improving and they have now reached an overall level of sophistication where full two-way interaction between citizens and governments is the norm. Nearly 50% of services allow the citizen to conduct the whole process on-line, says the latest e-Government survey carried out for the Commission.

• EU - Re-use of Commission Information (Europa)
  The Commission Decision on the Re-use of Commission Information was adopted on 7 April 2006. his Decision determines the conditions for the re-use of documents held by the Commission or on its behalf by the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities (Publications Office) with the aim of facilitating a wider re-use of information, enhancing the image of openness of the Commission, and avoiding unnecessary administrative burden for re-users and the Commission services alike.

Issue no. 363 - 25 June 2006

• FR - L'administration en ligne séduit davantage les Français (Reuters)
  La France, sixième nation en terme d'administration électronique en 2005, est le pays le plus réceptif et le plus demandeur vis-à-vis du développement des services administratifs en ligne, selon le dernier baromètre du cabinet Accenture. D'après l'étude menée auprès d'une cinquantaine de responsables gouvernementaux des onze pays leaders de l'e-administration et auprès de 8.600 citoyens de 21 pays, les Français (74%) se disent les plus séduits par la facilité d'utilisation d'internet au détriment des canaux traditionnels tels que l'accueil physique ou le courrier.

Issue no. 362 - 11 June 2006

• EU - eGovernment for all Europeans (Euroa)
  The Council of the EU meeting in Luxembourg, 8-9 June 2006 has given a strong political support to the realisation of the objectives for eGovernment 2010 set by Member States and the European Commission in the 'Manchester Ministerial Declaration' and the 'eGovernment Action Plan'. These conclusions reinforce the momentum which is already in place through joint efforts of all stakeholders to realise the ambitious objectives for eGovernment by 2010.

Issue no. 358 - 21 April 2006

• EU - A dissemination policy at the service of citizens (RAPID)
  Since 1 October 2004, Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, has made all its data and publications available free of charge on the Internet. This significant change enabled Eurostat to fully play its role as a public service institution, by giving free access to economic and social information on the euro-zone, the EU and the 25 Member States. More than 300 million data, from many different domains, are available online. The number of user sessions reached nearly one million per month. There was a six-fold increase in data downloaded.

• EU - Commission launches Internet Discussion Forum on the Future of Europe (RAPID)
  The European Commission has launched an internet discussion in 20 languages on the future of Europe. This discussion, which all citizens are invited to join, is part of the Commission's 'Plan D' for Dialogue, Debate and Democracy in response to a call by the European Council for a period of reflection following the negative votes in France and the Netherlands on the proposed Constitutional Treaty.

• EU - European Competition Network launches one-stop access website (RAPID)
  The European Competition Network - the European Commission together with the national competition authorities in the EU - has launched a website providing businesses, their advisors, and citizens with information about antitrust enforcement, annual reports and background documents about the Network. The ECN website will inter alia provide one-stop access to news releases from all the national competition authorities, plus the Commission.

Issue no. 354 - 31 January 2006

• EU - The e-Commission - The Information Worker of Tomorrow (RAPID)
  Speech by Siim Kallas, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for Administrative Affairs, Audit and Anti-Fraud. The Microsoft Government Leaders Forum. Lisbon, 31 January 2006.

• UK - Appraising the Freedom of Information Act, one year on (out-law.com)
  The Freedom of Information Act came into force 12 months ago and most public authorities say it is helping to create a culture of greater openness. But the Act's regulator has had over 2,300 complaints about the public sector improperly refusing to release information. According to the Information Commissioner's Office, over 1,000 of these complaints have been resolved either by negotiation, informal resolution or by formal decision notice. Only 135 such notices have been issued so far.

Issue no. 353 - 15 January 2006

• EU - Ministers to open their meetings to public (EUobserver.com)
  he EU Council, the member states' decision-making body, has decided to open its doors to parts of its meetings, in a move that has been termed by the European Commission as crucial in regaining the trust of Europe's citizens. EU member states agreed to hold discussions and votes on EU legislation, under the so-called co-decision procedure, in public with immediate effect. Thes decision does not cover policy areas which fall outside the co-decision procedure, such as most justice and home affairs legislation, nor does it cover non-legislative acts such as decisions on foreign policy. The move is also restricted to the council's first deliberations after the European Commission has presented its proposal, as well as its "final" deliberations that take place once the European Parliament has submitted its opinion.

• US - Congress' hands caught in the cookie jar (CNET News.com)
  Dozens of U.S. senators are quietly tracking visits to their Web sites even though they have publicly pledged not to do so. Sixty-six politicians in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are setting permanent Web cookies even though at least 23 of them have promised not to use the online tracking technique. see also Government Web sites are keeping an eye on you

Issue no. 350 - 4 December 2005

• EU - E-Commission: enabling efficiency and transparency (RAPID)
  The Commission has adopted a strategic framework, the e-Commission 2006-2010, renewing its commitment to an optimal use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to continuously improve its performance and transparency. While promoting externally the use of ICT in the whole society through the i-2010 strategy, the Commission intends to lead by example by applying to its own administration the European society policy in the e-government field. It aims in particular at offering better, more cost-effective, transparent and secure services to staff, national administrations, business and citizens.

• EU - Transforming public services: the new e-government strategy in the Commission (RAPID)
  Speech by Siim Kallas, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for Administrative Affairs, Audit and Fraud. Ministerial e-government conference 2005. Manchester, 24 November 2005.

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