Zea Partners News
The city of Modena switches to Open Source software
On its move to Open Source software, the city council of Modena, Italy, is replacing Microsoft Office with OpenOffice on all its 1600 PCs. It is also busy replacing its proprietary web site content management system (CMS) with the Open Source alternative Plone, running on top of Zope, an Open Source application server.
EU Competition Commissioner backs open standards in eGovernment
The EU Competition Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, publicly supported the use of open source software. She encouraged the public institutions to use open standards and suggested a much more active role of the European Commission in promoting open standards in eGovernment applications, by adopting an internal policy not to buy proprietary software.
OBOOE and OFE jointly call for action in European Commission support for European Software Strategy
The Open Source Business Organisations of Europe (OBOOE) and OpenForum Europe (OFE) have jointly written to Commissioner Viviane Reding, congratulating her on Commission progress in supporting the development of thinking and research into the use of Open Standards and Open Source Software, but encourage her to now move from ideas into specific action.
United Nations University urges legislators to support open source software
United Nations University (UNU-MERIT) experts urge parliamentarians to support open source software and information technologies as a way to let citizens participate meaningfully in the information society. They also emphasize that policy markers should consider information and communications technologies from a social rather than technical viewpoint.
EISCO 2008: PloneGov an international project tackling the digital divide
EISCO conferences have become a major event for politicians and experts working at local and regional level to discuss e-Government and Information Society strategies. Representatives of the open source initiative PloneGov have been invited to share their experience in developing international collaboration and sharing open source software between public organizations worldwide.
Plone: major Argentinean University launches its new institutional portal.
The National University of Cordoba (UNC), Argentina, recently launched its new institutional website built on Plone 3, the open source content management system. This project results from a close collaboration between the University development team with the support and assistance from menttes, a local Zea network member business.
Join the World Plone Day
Zea Partners invites you to promote the use of Plone, the open source content management system, organizing an introductory talk in your town and being part of the World Plone Day.
Non-profit organizations favor open source CMS
NTEN, the Nonprofit Technology Network, has just published the 2008 Content Management Systems Satisfaction Survey. It appears that non-profit organizations prefer open source solutions than proprietary one. These solutions maximize their resources allocation and give them the best of contemporary technologies. In complement to the survey findings, Zea Partners, a non-profit network of Open Source businesses, provides a number of cases studies analyzing large CMS deployments by non-profits worldwide.
Plone: Official launch of PloneGov in Italy
The Chamber of Commerce of Ferrara, the first PloneGov Italian member, invites 100 representatives from the public sector and open source experts to participate to the official launch of PloneGov in Italy on September 16, 2008.
FLOSSInclude, a European project to foster open source international collaboration
FLOSS is arguably one of the best examples of open, collaborative, internationally distributed production and development that exists today. With partners around the globe, the FLOSSInclude project will develop a roadmap for international cooperation to realise the potential of FLOSS as a tool for social and economic development.
Breaking Barriers: using free and open source software for development
The successful deployment of free and open source software (FOSS) in projects in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Latin America are described in a publication entitled "Breaking Barriers" by UNDP's Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme. In line with the book findings, Zea Partners, a non-profit network of Open Source businesses, provides additional cases studies outlining the positive impact of Open Source software as a tool for Social progress.
European Commission to increase its use of Open Source
The European Commission will take a more pro-active approach to its own use of Open Source and Open Standards. Xavier Heymans highlights the importance of a real and mature collaboration with communities where IT providers share their developments and adopt an "open source" philosophy.
News from the 2008 Plone Strategic Planning Summit
Plone, the sometimes enigmatic open source CMS, has been working hard and planning big changes. The recent wrap up of the 2008 Plone Strategic Planning Summit is proof positive that they are serious about competing in the big world of open source CMS and not getting lost in the mix that is growing rapidly as others pull ahead of the field. (Brown E., News from the 2008 Plone Strategic Planning Summit, in www.cmswire.com, May 29, 2008.)
eGovMoNet: a new network aiming to measure e-Government user satisfaction
Zea Partners is involved in a new European thematic network aiming to measure the user satisfaction of e-Government solutions. This network will be an opportunity to share experience with a number of European public organizations and providers involved in e-Government, and investigate the impact e-Government services.
UEAPME: the European SME Federation outlines its members needs
UEAPME president presented University and SMEs next years challenges. Xavier Heymans, Zea Partners CEO, reacts and specifies his purpose about open source SMEs. At present, the open source economy represents already 565,000 jobs and €263 billion in annual revenues in the European Union.
