"Freedom and Innovation" at the II Open Source World Conference
The second event will take place in Malaga again on 15th, 16th and 17th February 2006.

The third issue of tOSSad newsletter is out. This newsletter shows the huge amount of work tOSSad partners have achieved for the last three months - populated with 3 meetings, many guides and reports. Download the newsletter here.

Final program of our WP4 workshop, which will
be held on November 15-16, in the context of
Open Source for Education in Europe 2005 conference,
in Heerlen, The Netherlands.

tOSSad F/OSS in National Programs Workshop: Practices, Requirements, and Obstacles.

October 26, 2005; 11:30-14:30

Conference Hall 2.
Convention Center of Mérida
Extremadura (SPAIN)

This workshop aims to determine and discuss the requirements and  obstacles for national programs. While it will focus on best practices and success stories of F/OSS use in the public sector, it will also examine similarities and non-transferrables of various experiences.
Workshop is open to all conference participants. The EU wide tOSSad consortium cordially invites all to take active seats during the sessions.

Program:

11:30-11:45 Opening

11:45-12:15 Julio Yuste, Director of Vivernet, " The experience in creating a regional OS based economy".

12:15-12:45 Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology, "Requirements and obstacles in FLOSS adoption in National Programs"
12:45-13:00 Break

13:00-14:20 Open Discussion: With kindly contributions by Marcelo Branco from Brasil; Carlos Archiary from Argentina; Isaac Tomas Fuentes from Panama; Alexis Bonahón from Uruguay; Walter Raúl Pinedo Caldas from Peru; Felix Enrique Davila from Venezuela.
14:20-14:30 Closing

All tOSSad Workpackage 1 and Workpackage 2 partners had a meeting in Ljubljana where they discussed about the deliverables and task definitions in the workpackages. First day (28th of September) in the morning, Görkem Çetin (TUBITAK/UEKAE) has shown a demo that shows the possible usage scenarios of tOSSad portal. Bülent Özel has presented latest news about the reports (i.e National Roadmap Report, Economical and Social Benefits of FLOSS Report, and FLOSS Adoption in Public Sector Guideline Report) and tasks (Workshop organization in Extramadura, Spain) together with tasks distribution. 

One of the most comprehensive F/OSS usability surveys to date which was organized by workpackage 3 partners is now online. If you currently use Linux, OpenOffice.org or Firefox, you are invited to fill up a 15-minute survey which will reveal potential social issues with F/OSS products. Click here to go to the usability survey.

The deadline to answer the survey is September, 23rd.

2nd issue of tOSSad newsletter is published. Among the news are the tOSSad presence in Brussels and Genova, advances in curriculum work package, the first draft of F/OSS in national programs and the usability survey. Get the 2nd issue of the newsletter here. You can also download in PDF format and print it easily.

On the 12th of July the Tossad project was presented on the Concertation meeting of the projects of the 6FP of Software Technologies that was held in Brussels.

The objectives of the meeting were to build on the results of the Launch event held on November 4th, 2004 and to further stimulate collaboration activities between the projects in the Software Technologies unit.

This meeting provided an opportunity for the projects to further strengthen the synergies identified during the launch event and to be aware about the progress made.

Julia Velkova (Internet Society – Bulgaria) and Sandra Frings (IAT – Germany) presented in detail the tOSSad project's objectives. Potential links with other projects were discussed during the Free and Open Source Software session. Emphasis was on directions of the F/OSS research agenda and the role of international cooperation. Collaboration opportunities were identified with mainly the following two projects: FlossWorld and CALIBRE.

Official detailed information about the Concertation Meeting can be found here . Moreover, you can download the tOSSad presentation from here.

The representatives of the european parliament rejected with a overwhelming majority the proposition for a software patent directive. 648 out of 680 votes were against the directive, with only 18 abstentions. Its interesting to note that 680 out of a total of 732 representatives put down their vote.

Regional Governments of Extremadura and Andalusia, Open Source related companies and other entities organize the 2nd Open Source World Conference. In this edition, the conference will take place in two different dates and locations: Mérida (Extremadura, Spain) on October 25 and 26; and Málaga (Andalusia, Spain) on February 15, 16 and 17 of 2006 under the slogan "Innovation and Freedom".

October, 25th - 26th , 2005, Palacio de Congresos, Mérida, (Extremadura), Spain

For details see http://opensourceworldconference.com/merida05 .